


That Summer

by Unoriginality



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist (Anime 2003)
Genre: F/M, country love story inspiration, garth brooks lyrics abuse, real places in unreal places, that restaurant actually exists
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-28
Updated: 2014-12-10
Packaged: 2018-02-27 06:32:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 34,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2682749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unoriginality/pseuds/Unoriginality
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A dried up well, a used up dog of the military, and a steadfast Elric there to fix them both.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Thousand Miles From Nowhere

**Author's Note:**

> AU to EoS. Basically, assume that the status quo in the military was maintained and Ed never went to Germany. I handwave you away, Bones.

_"I went to work for her that summer,_  
 _A teenage kid so far from home._  
 _She was a lonely widow woman,_  
 _Hell-bent to make it on her own._  
 _We were a thousand miles from nowhere,_  
 _Wheat fields as far as I could see._  
 _Both needing something from each other,_  
 _Not knowing yet what that might be._  
-Garth Brooks

Winter was fighting a losing battle in the Western provinces, where farmers had turned sod and prairie into viable farming land. Ed's train stopped at a little town called Goehner, where his assignment was. He pulled out his orders from his coat pocket and eyed them. Fix a dried up well for one 'R. Grumman'. Ed had no idea how he was going to recognize this person, but he supposed someone would step up to say something eventually.

His train had arrived, miraculously, an hour early, so he had time to kill, and a hungry stomach begging for attention, so he adjusted his grip on his suitcase, then headed into town proper, checking the time on his watch to note the time so he knew when to get back to the platform to meet this 'R. Grumman.' 

He wandered along the main road of Goehner's dusty streets. Nothing was even paved here, except the occasional sidewalk and storefront. There was a bank, a post office, a general store where he supposed he could get a sandwich and a bottle of water, but he was hungry for a real meal, and he didn't feel he could impose on Miss-or-Mister Grumman for food. So he kept looking.

He passed a sleepy bookstore, and a second-hand clothing store, then finally a restaurant. He wondered about any place that called itself 'Chez Bubba', but as long as the food wasn't as bad as train food, which Ed had gotten used to over the years, he was happy.

They turned out to sell very good barbecue, with sweet potato fries that were the best Ed had tasted since Teacher's cooking. And cheap prices, too, which had worried him.

"Excuse me," he stopped his waitress as she grabbed his empty plate to take back. She stopped and looked at him. "Do you know someone with the last name Grumman around here?"

She smiled. "Oh, Miss Grumman? Yeah, she lives about a mile and a half down the road. She's supposed to be in town today, picking up an alchemist to fix her well. Poor thing, she can't get around too well. She says it's an old injury that's getting better, but she doesn't seem to be getting better. Why?"

"I'm the alchemist sent out to fix her well," Ed answered. "I didn't even get told if I was helping a man or a woman, so I'm pretty clueless here."

"Oh good, that poor woman needs help. You'll be watching for a blond woman in her late twenties when you meet her," the waitress said. "If that helps any."

"It does, thank you. And the food was good, give my compliments to the chef."

The waitress laughed. "That'll be the owner. I'll let him know. Thank you, you have a good day."

After leaving a sizable tip for the waitress, Ed grabbed his suitcase and headed out, checking his watch again. He had a little time to kill, maybe fifteen minutes, but he thought it better to just wait at the train platform and read a book, rather than risk losing track of time and being late and making this Miss Grumman wait.

Of course, Ed forgot that reading a book would make him lose track of time, more than wandering a podunk little town would. He was pulled from his book by a familiar voice saying his name. He blinked, his mind fogged over by the text, then looked around for who said his name.

"Edward?" the voice came again, a familiar one, and Ed finally spotted Lieutenant Hawkeye, out of her familiar uniform in a red cotton dress, on a tired old cart pulled by an equally tired-looking mule.

"Lieutenant? What're you doing here?" Ed put away his book.

"I live here," she said. "And it's just Riza now. What're you doing here? Don't you live in East City?"

Ed sighed. "I'm on assignment," he answered. "I'm supposed to help fix a dried-up well for someone named R. Grumman."

Riza stared, getting a frozen look on her face, then she introduced the palm of her hand to her face. "Oh, Edward, I'm so sorry. I'm R. Grumman. That's my mother's maiden name. I told Roy not to use one of the State Alchemists. I'm so sorry, Ed, you should be home with your family."

Ed blinked. "You're R. Grumman?" He decided, for the moment, anyway, to not ask about the injury, although now that he looked, he noticed a cane propped against the seat next to her. "Well, he wanted the best for you, so here I am." He grabbed his suitcase and walked over to the cart.

She slid over a bit, clearly fighting back a wince as she did. He frowned as he stowed his suitcase in the back of the cart. "You okay?"

"I'm fine," she said. "Come on up. Hopefully we'll have you on the evening train home to your brother."

Ed climbed up and shrugged. "Eh, he and Winry are fine on their own. If the job takes longer, I'm not in any hurry."

She frowned as she urged the mule to turn and start taking them up the road. "Maybe, but I feel bad for taking you from your family."

Ed shook his head. "Naw, like I said, don't worry about it. They're still playing newlyweds, I doubt they even notice I'm gone." He tried his best to leech the bitterness out of his voice when he said that. He didn't begrudge his brother his happiness, nor Winry's, who'd always been like a sister to him anyway.

Riza pursed her lips together. "I'm sorry, Edward. I didn't realize things were like that at home."

"What? No, we're fine, I'm just peripheral concern right now to them. It's fine."

They both fell silent, conversation feeling too awkward to continue. Riza clearly didn't want Ed to stick around longer than absolutely necessary; maybe he could find an inn there in town he could stay at, let her have her privacy that he knew she always had jealously guarded. And even though Ed had not been joking that his brother and Winry probably barely noticed his absence, he was still eager to get home. He wasn't particular towards farmland, and it was chilly there, spring still settling in.

Not that East City wasn't still a bit chilly, but he could stay indoors to work there. Except when Russell pulled him away to help him with something.

They rode in silence until they reached her house, a nice old farmhouse with a wrap-around porch and a swing that didn't look like it'd been used in awhile, with rusted chains and chipped paint. Actually, as nice as the house looked, it also looked in a sad state of disrepair. A shutter hung loose over one upstairs window, the paint peeled in some places, and the roof looked ready to call it quits for want of repairs and reshingling.

"Nice place," he commented idly, following polite protocol.

"Thank you," Riza said, directing the mule and cart behind the house to the barn. "I got it cheap. It needs some repairs I haven't gotten to yet, but I'll get to them."

Ed glanced at the cane. _Yeah, I'll just bet._ "Maybe I'll help you with them while I'm here," he said. "Couldn't hurt to have a few extra hands working."

She looked at him. "No, that's okay. It's nothing I can't handle. Although I suppose a little help with the roof wouldn't be out of place. Ladders can be dangerous to climb, after all, and while I do like the people in this town, they're a bit nosy." She stopped the cart in the barn and climbed down slowly, grabbing her cane.

Ed grabbed his suitcase and hopped down. He'd offer help unhitching the mule, but she knew better how to do that than him, so he left that offer unsaid. When she limped around the back of the cart after releasing the mule, he stuck a hand in his jeans pocket. "Speaking of nosy, mind if I ask what happened? You didn't have a cane last time I saw you."

She froze, her cheeks coloring slightly. "I- ... well, I suppose there was no way to keep it secret. I broke my hip three years ago, in a skirmish along the Southern border. I was in sniper position to protect the general and the building collapsed. The doctors said I got lucky that's all that happened."

She started walking towards the house, Ed walking slowly to let her keep up. "They said I'd never be serviceable for the military again. Which I suppose is why I'm out here. I have no intention of letting this keep me down. I'm a Grumman, we don't let injuries stop us from being where we're needed."

"You sound like an Elric," Ed said with a bit of a rueful tone. "What about a hip replacement?"

She shook her head. "It wasn't just the joint area that broke, Ed. It was my entire side of my hip. They said I was lucky they could piece anything back together."

Ed stared at her. "God, are you sure about this, Riza? That's not something you can just stubborn away."

"You stubborned away two lost limbs and your brother's missing body," Riza said, opening the back door. "If you can do that, I can do this."

"Riza?" Ed stepped back out of the way of an excited Hayate greeting his owner. "There's no automail for a broken hip, and you saw what it cost us to fix Al's body, so don't even try to use that argument." If she thought she was more stubborn than an Elric, she was dead wrong.

She whirled to face him as the back door slammed shut behind him. "I didn't ask you. If I can't do it, I'll stay out here until I can. This is none of your business, Ed."

Hayate whimpered, squirming back as Ed held up his free hand defensively. "I'm speaking as a friend, and you _were_ a friend to my family," he said. "You're going to kill yourself out here. I think that's my business."

Riza's grip on her cane visibly tightened. "You are as bad as the general. I see why he sent you out here. You can put your suitcase in the second bedroom on the right upstairs, then we can get to work on that well." Her tone was the tone he always remembered as being Lieutenant Hawkeye, hard and no-nonsense. It was dramatically different from the softer tone he'd heard when she first caught his attention that day.

He heard the dismissal. "Fine by me," he grumbled, stalking up the stairs she directed him to. She wanted to be dumb and stubborn, that was fine by him. Frustrating woman. Now he could see why Mustang never had any patience to spare on a fifteen year old boy. He spent it all on his lieutenant.

Ed's frustration had already simmered down to something no stronger than rolling his eyes by the time he found the bedroom Riza had picked out for him on the off chance he had to stay longer. It was a decent little room, with a bed, a nightstand, and a dresser. The curtains fluttered in the spring breeze. Ed went over and shut the window. Must've been opened to air out the room. Well, either way, the room was aired out, and now it was making the room chilly.

He set his suitcase on the bed and walked back downstairs. "Hey, Riza? How've you been getting water since this well dried up?"

"Hm?" She looked up at him as he hopped off the last step. "Oh, the well's not a hundred percent dry yet, it's spitting out dirty water, though, so I've been boiling water for Hayate and myself. The other animals are used to drinking out of creeks, I figured they could live with a little dirt in their water. Mister Martin said that the dirty water was the first sign that a well was drying up."

Ed nodded. "Okay. Think you can get by a few more days that way?"

"I can last a few more days, yes." She grabbed the back screen door and held it open for him. "Edward, you're doing me a favor, I can accommodate you for a few days without you paying for it."

He frowned, stepping outside, then turning to wait for her. "If you're sure."

She limped down the three steps to the ground. "I'm certain. If it ends up being a prolonged stay, we may have to find something else to do, but for a few days, it's fine."

He walked slowly beside her, although she was clearly struggling to walk faster than she was capable of. "Riza, slow down, you'll hurt yourself."

"I'm merely trying to walk at a normal pace, Edward. I'll be fine." She had that tight tone again, and Ed had already decided he hated it compared to the tone he'd heard her use on his brother whenever Ed had to go report in to Mustang.

He wished he could keep that tone from her voice, but at the same time, he wished he could smack the stupid out of her and make her take it easy on herself. As long as he was concerned for her health, she'd get that awful tone. Rock and a fucking hard place.

Oh well, he supposed. He was only going to be here a few days before shipping back home to do his work out there. The best he could do is report to Mustang and hope the older man could get through to her.

"Well, slow down anyway," he snapped. "I'm in no damn hurry."

Riza stopped in her tracks, causing him to stumble a step as he pulled himself to an abrupt stop. "Aren't you anxious to get out of here?"

He shrugged. "I told you, I got nothing exciting wait for me back home. Just time alone in the lab while Al and Winry get romantic at each other. I'm out here helping a friend, can't I stop and enjoy that?"

She flushed, then glanced away. "Yes, I suppose you can." She started walking again, this time at what had to be a more comfortable pace. After a few steps, she spoke up again. "I didn't know you considered me a friend, Edward."

He smiled. "Well, now you know. You were nice to my brother, and all of you took care of us. Hard to not consider someone like that a friend."

Her cheeks turned pink again. "Well, I. Thank you, I suppose. I only did what anyone with sense would do. It was more the general taking care of you than me, though."

Ed shrugged. "You made my brother smile. I consider that part of taking care of us. You're one of the few people who treated him like a normal kid."

"That's because he was normal," Riza said simply. "Just like any other boy in his early teens that looks odd for whatever reason. And believe me, while you escaped that, most boys in their early teens do look slightly odd."

He laughed. "I guess. I never really noticed. Anyway," he interrupted the conversation, crouching down next to the well, "is this the well?" 

The well amounted to nothing more than a small pipe sticking up from the ground with a cap on it. The rest was underground. There'd be a pipe leading from the well to an indoor reservoir, probably in the basement, along with a control box for the submerged pump down in the well bottom.

"This is it," Riza confirmed. "The rest is in the house. Mister Martin came up and checked some of the internal components, but he was far from an expert."

"I'll check those, first," Ed said, rocking back on his heels. "Before I go digging down to the water table, let's make sure those are working. Where are they?"

"They're in the storm cellar," Riza said, stepping back a little as Ed got to his feet. "I can show you."

Ed shook his head. "Wait here," he said. "I can check it on my own. It's over here, right?"

Riza gave him a tired look. "Yes, which is why I was going to go with, to show you where the cellar was."

He flashed her a grin. "I can find a cellar if you point me in the right direction. I got it. Just find a seat and wait, I'll be back." He wandered off, quickly finding the door to the cellar. It lay at an incline to the side of the house, a white set of doors. He pulled on the handles, opening them into a dark basement. He looked around for a light knob, finding none. Probably a pull chain further down. 

Taking the stairs carefully, Ed kept feeling along the wall for a switch as his natural sunlight overhead began to dim the farther down he got. Finally, at the bottom of the stairs, was a pull-chain light on the ceiling. He pulled the chain, flooding the basement with light. In the far corner was a giant tank, the reservoir tank, and a box on the wall, both with a pipe and cord disappearing into the wall respectively.

"Here we go," he muttered to himself, walking over and immediately zeroing in on the control box. A cursory inspection showed nothing wrong, and once he got at the guts of the device, he couldn't find anything wrong there, either. He reassembled the control box and snapped the casing back on, frowning. 

There had to be something going on, and he was really not wanting to dig down the sixty feet that well probably went down to find that the water table was dry. If the water table was dry, he'd have to get his hands on a local mapping of the area's aquifers and hope there was a contained one further down, though god only knew how deep it'd be. If there wasn't more water to be found lower down, Riza would be stuck trying to sell the utterly worthless property and house and move somewhere else.

Well, he'd stick around and help with that, no matter what she said. Moving was stressful enough without having to sell a useless property on top of it.

He headed out of the cellar, only barely remembering to turn off the light on his way up the stairs. "Okay," he said to Riza as he got within hearing range. "The control box and reservoir are fine. If it's the pipe or the cord leading into them, I won't know without tearing up your yard. I can check them before we go digging down to the water table."

Riza sighed. "How long is this going to take? It's very troublesome, going without water here."

Ed shrugged. "Truthfully? I don't know."

That got a frown out of her. "I thought you could use alchemy for this? That's why Roy sent you."

"I could," Ed admitted. "But I don't know what I'm looking for. I'll use alchemy to speed up the dig, but some of it's gotta be done by hand. Probably why he sent me instead of someone else. He knows I'm up for this."

She continued to frown for about ten seconds longer, then sighed again. "All right. Take as long as you need, Edward." She hesitated. "You _can_ fix this, right?"

Ed looked at her. "Probably. Depends on the water, honestly. If it's a problem in construction, it'll be a simple fix. If the water table's gone dry, I'll have to get a mapping of the aquifers around here and see if there's something deeper down. If there's nothing to be had, I hate to say this, but the property's useless for living on without water."

Riza groaned. "Well, here's to hoping there's water down there, hm?"

Ed rubbed his nose. Itchy. Must be all the dust out here. "Yeah. Don't worry too much, if it comes to it, I'll buy the property and you can move somewhere else."

His statement got a lot of confused blinking from Riza. "Oh, Edward, I couldn't ask you to do that. You wouldn't be able to do anything with this place."

He grinned. "Sure I could. there's bound to be bedrock down there, and all sorts of interesting minerals to play with. Aquifers are ancient lakes and waters, they tend to be treasure troves for scientists once the water's gone and the other people vacate. Don't worry, it wouldn't be a totally wasted investment for me. But the land would be useless to you if the well's dry and there's nothing down there we can tap."

"Thank you," Riza said with an exceedingly grateful look on her face. She looked like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. "Is there anything you need to get started?"

He looked around. "A shovel?"

Her lips quirked upwards. "I suppose that should've been obvious. There's one in the barn. I'll go get it."

"No, you go in and sit down. I can get it," Ed said.

She gripped her cane tightly again. "Don't baby me, Ed."

"I'm not," he said. "I don't want _you_ babying _me_ out of some misplaced sense of pride. It's insulting."

She was taken aback, and she looked down at the ground. "I'm sorry, I didn't think of it that way. Very well, I'll leave you to your work. Tell me if you need anything."

He nodded. "I will, don't worry." While she went inside, he wandered off to the barn to get the shovel.

***

It was hours later before his work was interrupted. He'd transmuted open a ditch between the well and the house where the cable and pipe would enter the cellar. Now he was clearing away the layers of dirt that remained between him and that cable and pipe with a shovel, not trusting his alchemy to zip right past it and possibly damage the pipe or cable. So it was the shovel.

"How's it going?" Riza asked, limping out, a glass of water in hand. The water looked rather unappetizing, but Ed knew it'd be the only water he was getting until he fixed this damn well. Ugh.

"It's going. I'm almost to the pipe. I've found the cord, and it looks fine. I was just about to use a transmutation to try to get the dirt between the two out of the way without damaging something. It's slow going."

Riza carefully crouched down, offering the glass of water, although she looked like she was in pain doing that. "Here. It's not that great, but it's what I've got, I'm afraid."

Ed frowned, taking the water. "Thanks, Riza. Stand up, you look like you're hurting."

She scowled, but pushed herself up with her cane. "I'm dealing with it, Edward. And I'll keep dealing with it until it stops hurting."

"Won't happen," Ed said idly, taking a drink before choking and spitting part of it out. "Holy shit, is this what you've been living with?"

Riza's expression had been frosty, then quickly melted into an apologetic smile. "Yes, it is. Awful, isn't it? That's why I was willing to call Roy to ask for help."

"Pushed even you over the edge, huh?" He grimaced as he took another drink. Nasty or not, it was water and he was quickly dehydrating himself out here. It wasn't warm yet, but this work was tough and physically demanding.

"Me, and a certain dog that's used to me spoiling him. _After_ he obeys all my commands, that is." She had a small smile on her face at that.

"Oh, Hayate?" Ed looked around. "Where is he?"

"In the house," Riza said. "I only let him outside to do his business. We have poisonous snakes out here, I don't want him getting hurt."

Ed stepped back in his ditch, looking around. "Poisonous snakes? Great of someone to warn me."

Riza smiled. "They tend to stick towards areas with water. Which is not my well at the moment. So you're probably safe."

Ed shot her a sour look. "Thanks a lot." He stuck the shovel into the dirt piled around the well cap itself. He set the glass down on the ground and tilted his head to one side, cracking his neck.

Riza cringed. "Doesn't that hurt?"

He shook his head. "Not really. I take it you heard that?"

She frowned. "It'd be hard not to. That was loud. It sounded painful."

"Sorry," he said with a quiet laugh. "But no, it feels good, actually. My neck was feeling tight. If you want, you can stick around while I finish up here, then we'll know if we need to dig the well or not."

"What will you do if we have to dig down to the water table?" she asked, settling down on the ground with a wince.

"Well first I'll run to city hall and take a look at the mappings of the aquifers and water tables," Ed said, clapping his hands and pressing them to the ground, slowly and gently moving aside dirt from beneath the cord to the control box. 

"What then?" Her voice held a note of worry.

He paused the transmutation as the pipe began to become exposed. "Well, it depends on what I find. If there's no water down there, I'll buy the property from you and help you move to a new place where there's water."

Riza gave him a frown. "I won't accept your charity, Ed," she said a bit hotly. "I know as well as you do that this property would be totally worthless without water."

"For living or farming, sure," he said. "But for a scientist, this place could potentially be a gold mine. There's all sorts of neat minerals to be had, especially down where the aquifer was. You must've forgotten me saying this, but aquifers are prehistoric lakes and rivers, basically. Imagine what sort of information about ancient times we can find just from the rocks and minerals left by that water. I can find some archaeologists interested in digging around here to sell the property to."

"Hm, maybe I should just do that now and forget the well," she said with a teasing smile on her face.

He razzed her. "After the work I've already put in? You can just be patient and find out if it's necessary or not."

She grinned, and Ed shook his head, crouching down in the ditch and clapping his hands, resuming the transmutation that carefully whittled away dirt and some sod until the entire pipe leading to the reservoir from the well was exposed. "There we go." He carefully walked on either side of the pipe, feeling along it for weaknesses in the metal or cracks or any sign of damage that might explain the water quality she was getting.

Finally, he straightened, looking at the pipe in puzzlement. "Must be the well itself," he finally declared, looking back over at Riza. "Why don't you get settled here, I'll head back to town, take a look at those maps, if there are any."

Riza grabbed her cane and pushed herself up to her feet. She did it slowly, although it was obvious to Ed she was trying to do it faster than she really could and he sighed. "Riza, take it easy, please."

She flatly ignored him. "I'll come into town with you. I know where to look for the maps, and Hayate would like a chance to go to town. I didn't take him with me when I picked you up because I wasn't sure who to expect and I didn't want to make a stranger nervous with an overprotective dog."

Ed laughed. "All right." He pulled himself up out of the ditch he'd made and brushed himself off. "Man, I already want a bath."

Riza shook her head with a faint smile. "I'm afraid you're out of luck on that until this well's fixed. I may or may not have been going crazy without being able to clean myself."

Ed looked at her, walking with her to the house. "Is there an inn in town? We could always rent out a room so we can clean up, or at least you. I can last a few days before I start to smell."

She climbed the stairs into the kitchen, whistling for Hayate. "Oh, I'll be fine a little longer. We've made it this long, a few more days won't bother me."

Hayate came bounding downstairs from one of the upstairs rooms and barked, circling the two of them once and then sitting down obediently in front of Riza. "Good boy," she said, grabbing his leash off the wall by the door and bent down, again too fast for what she could probably reasonably handle with that hip, and snapped it on his collar. 

She handed the leash to Ed. "Can you keep an eye on him? I have to hook Rosie up to the cart."

He took the leash and eyed Hayate. "You going to be a good dog for me?" he asked the dog playfully. Hayate looked at him with a cocked head, then barked once, slipping between them and over to the door, putting a paw on the door. Ed looked at Riza. "I'd say he's eager to get going."

She laughed. "He always is. The only thing he's ever more excited for is food."

"Typical animal," Ed said, opening the door and holding it for Riza. A protest formed in her expression and she started to open her mouth, but before she could get a word out, he rolled his eyes. "Get off it, Riza," he said. "I'm holding the door because my mother taught me to be a gentleman, not because I think you can't do it."

She flushed, pursing her lips. "I'm sorry, Edward, it was wrong of me to assume. Thank you, I appreciate the gesture." She carefully navigated her way down the steps and started towards the barn. Hayate walked obediently beside Ed, tongue lolled out happily.

"Anything I can do to help hook up the mule?" he asked. "And once again, I plead manners, not babying you. You'll have to get used to it while I'm out here."

She paused, looking at him, then down at the cart. "No, Edward, thank you. I've done this enough times, and I imagine it'd be easier to do it myself than instruct you. I'm not much of a teacher, I tend to just do it myself."

"Fair enough," Ed said, holding onto Hayate's leash. He glanced down at the dog. "You have a stubborn human," he told the dog.

Hayate barked once, wagging his tail but otherwise holding still.

Riza gave him a tired scowl. "I am not," she said, finishing tying off the straps that held the mule to the cart.

"Riza? You've been stubborn from the second you came out here," he said. "And from what I remember of you as Lieutenant Hawkeye, you were already stubborn before that injury." He got up into the cart next to her, Hayate bouncing up in after him.

Riza sighed. "I suppose I was. I had to be to keep up with the general."

Ed shook his head. "I still can't think of him as a general. He's the colonel forever to me."

That got an amused smile out of Riza. "You and me both, Ed. I'm sure this would cause him annoyance. He's rather proud of his promotion."

Ed laughed. "Yeah, well, he can be a general all he wants, he's the colonel to me and that's final."

"I understand that you're still his subordinate, correct?" Riza glanced at Ed as Rosie slowly took them into town.

"Yeah, kinda. The State Alchemists aren't strictly military anymore, so they can't force me into a uniform, but I can still be sent on military missions. Mustang wanted me to come out here to fix your well, so here I am."

She sighed. "And I'm truly sorry he's wasting your talents for a personal favor."

"No, don't be sorry," he said. "Like I said earlier, didn't have much going on anyway, and it's nice to get some company that isn't too busy being moonstruck for me. You and I are probably going to argue about your capabilities while I'm here, but at least you won't be going 'uh-huh, Brother, that's nice, Brother, hey Winry, kiss kiss.'" Ed rolled his eyes. "So seriously, don't be sorry."

She gave him a sympathetic look. "Is that really what's going on?"

"Basically," Ed said. "Oh, he's made some time for me, but most of the time, he's distracted with Winry. So I don't mind being around you, even if, like I said, we end up arguing about your hip. At least you're paying attention to me when we do it."

"That's a terrible reason for an argument, Edward," she said with a laugh. "All right, I'll try to be less stubborn while you're here. But I _am_ going to make myself overcome this."

He sighed. "Riza, you can overcome the handicap without ever returning to the military. And there's nothing wrong with asking for help. I'll help with the roof when I'm done with the well. That roof looked ready to collapse in. Maybe with the painting, too."

"Oh, Ed, even if I weren't set on doing that myself, I couldn't ask you to stay out here that long for personal favors to me."

"What if I want to?" he asked, looking over at her. "I mean it, I want to help. I consider you a friend, and you need help to do that, even if you weren't injured."

Riza was silent, blinking occasionally as her eyes started looking wet. "I guess I never thought anyone but the general thought of me as that good of a friend."

Ed put a hand on her shoulder. "Well, now you know. So prepare for fussing, woman."

That acutally got her to laugh. "Great, just what I need, another worry wart in my life."

"This? From _you_?" he demanded.

Riza lifted her head. "I am nowhere near as bad as you or the general." 

"My ass you aren't," he said. "face it, you're just as bad as we are."

"I most certainly am not," she grumbled.

Ed patted her shoulder. "The fact that you're here and _why_ you're here is proof enough, Riza."

"Think as you will," she replied.

Ed suddenly got the impression that there was far more than simple stubbornness keeping Riza out here by herself working through an injury that would never give her back her old mobility. But as they were near to town and she would likely not open up to him anyway, he let it drop for the moment. Maybe someday while he was here he could ask, but for right now, he kept his questions to himself.

They rode through the streets, or rather, dusty gravel roads, of Goehner to the city hall. Ed hopped down, handing the leash over to Riza. "Walk him, I'll get the maps, it won't take but a few minutes."

She carefully got down out of her cart, letting Hayate off his leash to go run around for a few minutes while Ed headed inside. After getting the run around for a bit, he finally located the office with the maps he needed. 

Since he couldn't take off with them, he sat down and studied, marking off distances in his mind. He swore. The water table was sixty feet down, and if that was dry, the main aquifer, the Ogallala, was about another sixty feet down past that. Fuck. That'd be a lot of digging. But, on the other hand, the Ogallala was reliably full still, so once hooked in there, Riza shouldn't have to worry about her well going dry again.

He returned the maps to where they belonged and headed back outside. Riza was playing with Hayate, telling him to stay, while she traveled a distance away, then okaying him to come chase her. She didn't move very fast, but Hayate acted like she did, bounding after her in slow leaps and barking happily the whole time.

Ed smiled, watching this, seeing the woman behind the stubborn pride of the lieutenant. She was a wonderful woman; anyone who was so sweet with animals was a good person in Ed's book.

She noticed him after she tired and had to lean heavily on her cane to get to the cart. "Oh, Edward. How long have you been standing there?"

"Just a couple minutes. You two looked like you were having fun, so I didn't say anything." He walked over to the cart and moved to help her up. She started to protest, not a glare but a look of frustrated dismay on her face as she struggled to get into the cart by herself. "Riza," he said gently. "Accept the help. If only for Hayate's sake. What is he going to do if you injure yourself again?"

She struggled to breathe evenly, tears clearly threatening. "I can do this," she insisted.

"Riza, don't hurt yourself," he said quietly. "Come on, let me help you."

She reluctantly gave in, letting him lift her up into the cart. She blinked, grabbing the seat. "I. I didn't expect you to just lift me up like that. I didn't think anyone was that strong."

He grinned, picking up Hayate and handing the dog over to his owner. "You're not heavy," he said. "And I haul around heavier things on a regular basis."

She blushed, something he nearly didn't see as he moved around to the other side of the cart to get in. "I- I see. Well I suppose I should be glad that I haven't gained any weight since coming out here."

He smiled. "Way to look at it like a woman," he said, climbing up in next to her. "The water table's about sixty feet down. If it's empty, there's the Ogallala aquifer about another sixty feet below that."

Riza sighed. "I could be without water for quite some time, couldn't I?"

"Well, clean water, anyway. Is there an inn in town? We can rent a room for you to at least wash up and enjoy some clean water before we go back?"

"No, it's fine," she said. "If this ends up taking too long, I may take you up on that offer, but I can survive a few more days."

"If you're sure," Ed said as Riza prodded Rosie into her slow pace back to Riza's homestead.

"I'm sure," she said. "I had worse conditions in Ishbal. We all had too much sand in places we didn't want anything, much less sand." She laughed. "The general was whiny the whole time. In private, of course, but I counted as 'in private'."

Edward snorted in amusement. "He whines about everything. I'm surprised he kept it in private back then."

"That was before he started cultivating the image of a procrastinator to make himself look like less of a threat to higher ups as he climbed the ranks," Riza explained. 

"Oh, that was an image? I thought he was like that naturally."

She grinned. "Oh, some of it's natural, but he greatly exaggerated it."

"What about his short jokes?"

"That childishness was all natural," she said. "And you encouraged it by giving him wonderful comebacks."

"I did no such thing!" Ed protested.

Riza rolled her eyes, looking at him with a long-suffering look on her face. "Edward. 'Who're you calling a bean of the military'?"

He flushed. "I never said that, he did."

"It's not nice to lie."

"I'm not, he- ... oh fine. He never said those things. But he _did_ constantly remark that it was little of me to not tell him everything, or how he couldn't see me over his desk."

"Yes, he did," Riza agreed. "And that childishness was all natural. He loved hearing how small you'd become. I believe the one that cracked him was your 'electron to a muon' comment. He had to explain it to me later, but his expression told me plenty without it."

Ed turned an even deeper shade of red, closely resembling the coat he'd become famous for. "I- okay, maybe that was a little ridiculous."

"Only a little."

He eyed her evilly. "Don't you start."

She gave him a placid look. "Start what?" He stared at her suspiciously until she cracked up into laughter. "Oh, Edward, I'm sorry, but you make it so easy sometimes. Don't worry, you've definitely grown since those days."

"Damn right I have," he said, crossing his arms in a sulk.

"Whether you've matured or not seems to be up for debate, though."

His jaw dropped as he stared at her incredulously. Mature? He'd show her mature. "You were the one picking on me first," he said.

"Yes, but friends do that," she said with a bratty smile. "You just sulked."

"And adults never sulk, I take it?"

"Well, I must admit to seeing Roy do it from time to time, so I suppose maturity is relative." She gave him a benign smile.

"Don't make me stick my tongue out at you," he threatened jokingly.

She grinned. "Ooh, the dreaded tongue. The true pinnacle of maturity. You know, Roy's done that to me a couple times. I'll tell you what I told him."

"What's that?"

"Keep it out and it may get shat on by an opportunistic bird."

Ed stared at her in disbelief for a second, then started laughing. "You have an odd sense of humor. I like it."

She smiled, flushing slightly. "Thank you. Most of the time, the others in the office didn't realize I was joking. I guess my sense of humor's a little deadpan."

Ed shrugged. "So? I like it. So don't worry about other people."

"Well, that does make me feel a little better, thank you."

They rode in a companionable silence the rest of the way back to the homestead. As Riza unhitched Rosie, Ed walked over to the giant ditch he'd been working in. He stared at it like a long-hated enemy, making a face as his nose crinkled up. "This damn well," he muttered, then hopped down into the ditch. 

Riza limped over, Hayate in tow, a minute later. "Edward, it occurs to me. If the water table's drying up, how will we get down to the aquifer? I don't have enough metal around the house that you can steal to make piping, and ordering it would surely take too long with how horrible this water is."

"I'll figure something out," he promised her. "Why don't you go ahead and order that piping now? Put it on my account, I'll bill the general for it later, that way we have it just in case, and if we don't need it, eh, I'm sure it can be used or sold or something."

"I'll go do that now," she said, heading back inside.

Ed clapped his hands and got back to work.


	2. I'm All Alone And I Need You Now

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He was too _much_. Too bright, too beautiful, too kind and caring and just too much everything. Being in his presence was like being in the presence of the sun, warm and bright in her too cold world.

_It's a quarter after one,_  
 _I'm all alone and I need you now._  
 _Said I wouldn't call,_  
 _But I lost all control,_  
 _And I need you now._  
 _And I don't know how I can do without,_  
 _I just need you now._  
-Lady Antebellum

"Goddamn, I need a shower," Edward griped as he stepped into the house, rubbing his neck with his discarded shirt. "I don't care how chilly it is out there, work hard enough and you sweat. I feel disgusting."

It'd been a week already and Edward was still getting down to the aquifer, trying not to disrupt what was down there too much, and having to go through layers of harder substances that didn't want to dig out. The water table was, sadly, dry, so to the Ogallala it was.

Riza smiled in amusement, not looking up from where she was preparing dinner. Which amounted to soup, she wasn't much of a creative cook. "You say that every day," she said. "You can sponge yourself off in the bathroom and hang your clothes to dry over the shower rod."

"Yeah, I know."

Riza looked up and froze. Aside from Alex, who was a bit on the overdone side, she'd never seen a shirtless man that was so... _built_. It was incredibly attractive, scars and automail and all, and it made her blush, the brief thoughts that flitted through her head at the sight of him.

_He's too young for you,_ she reminded herself angrily. _And he's probably got someone back home._ His age and looks, it'd be hard for him to _not_ have someone waiting back home for him.

Besides, if something ever came of her sudden infatuation, he'd probably pester her to death about giving up on rehabilitating her hip. And she wasn't ready to give up on that yet. Roy still needed her.

Her annoyance at herself for those thoughts simmered right along with the soup. She stirred it furiously, nearly splashing it out on the stove. Why was she having those thoughts anyway? She was just lonely out there, that was all. No man had ever shown interest in her before, why would someone like Edward? Even if he didn't already have someone, why would he be interested in a crippled old dog of the military?

"Hey, careful there," Edward's voice said behind her. "You're splashing the food."

She jumped, whirling to face him and pulled her hip in the process. She grabbed the counter to keep from going down, crying sharply as pain radiated out from her hip up to her ribs and down her leg to her knee.

Edward's arm shot out and caught her before she went down, holding her up and tight against him. "You okay?" Concern laced his voice like a welcome balm, despite her pride's refusal to accept it.

"I'm fine," she said, slowly righting herself in his arms. His embrace was the kind one could melt into, and her face felt like it was on fire. "I'm fine, please don't be concerned. I'm fine." She pulled out of his grip, pain still radiating like fire along her whole right side. She gripped the counter tightly, trying to will away the pain.

"No, you're not," he said, putting his hands on her shoulders. "Riza, come on, come sit down, I can finish dinner."

Her stubborn pride felt foolish in face of his concern, concern from such a beautiful man, beautiful in every sense of the word. But she couldn't just crumple for him, she wouldn't crumple for anyone, she _had_ to get back to her former position, she wasn't useful for anything else. What could she possibly offer Edward but grief?

"I told you, Edward, I am _fine_."

He scowled. "Riza, goddamn your pride, no you're not. Come on, come sit down."

She felt herself tearing up in frustration as she slowly let him help her into a chair. Pain continued to tear apart her hip, and her breath hissed through her teeth as she tried to control it. "I'm fine, I can do this," she insisted quietly, voice strained with pain.

Edward crouched down in front of her. "Riza, it's okay to accept help," he said. "I have to sometimes, even with automail. I'm not without my troubles because of my own handicaps. There is _nothing_ wrong with being unable to do everything yourself."

Now she _did_ tear up in frustration. "You don't understand," she said quietly. "I have to get back there, he needs me."

Edward was quiet a second. "You love him?"

That question caught her off-guard, sent her mind reeling. "Not like that, but yes, I do. I want to protect him, and I can't do that if I don't get over this."

"Riza, he has a new adjutant," Ed said. "You're needed more as his friend now, and that's no less important. And as his friend, you should take care of yourself so you can be there for him as he needs you."

A friend. She could be his friend and still protect him, couldn't she? "I have to get back, Edward. I don't expect you to understand why."

He didn't say anything for a moment, staring at her with those intense gold eyes that made her feel exposed, like he could see through her bravada to the naked truth that she kept from everyone. _I am useless if I cannot protect him. I have nothing else to offer anyone._ For an irrational moment, she almost said it out loud, almost confided in him. It was foolish, he'd only been there a week, she couldn't have let him in that far already.

But she was so lonely.

He finally broke contact with a sigh. "You sit. I'll get you some aspirin and tend to dinner. And don't argue with me on this one."

She hung her head like a scolded child. "All right," she conceded. He had so much power over her. It'd been a week! What was wrong with her? Loneliness, that was all. Well, no more of that nonsense. She'd let him have his way this one time, but only because, if she were honest with herself, her hip was in too much pain for her to move.

She took the aspirin with a glass of muddy water as he brought it to her, then waited silently while he served up the soup. "Thank you, Edward," she said, trying to distance herself with her tone.

He sat down across from her, watching her curiously. "Why're you trying to shut me out?" he finally asked.

She flushed. What was it about the men in her life being able to read her thoughts? Roy was the same way.

"I'm not trying to," she protested, her tone clipped and cool, or at least she hoped it was. "I was saying thank you."

Edward looked down at his soup. "If you say so," he said, starting to eat.

Damnit. It was either give in, which she simply couldn't do, or hurt his feelings, and that tore at her. She didn't intend to make him feel bad, but she had to protect herself somehow. Falling for a man like Edward didn't take much effort nor that much time, and it scared her.

They ate in silence, and he cleaned up as she struggled to her feet. Her hip still hurt, very badly. She hoped she could climb the stairs to get to bed. Well, no help for it. She had to, or she'd be sleeping on the couch, and that made her hip worse. Usually, in this position, she crawled up the stairs, but she would never get away with that with Edward around. 

"I'm going to bed early, I hope you don't mind," she said, holding all her weight on her cane. 

He watched her. "All right," he said, not moving. Good, he wasn't trying to follow her.

She limped, moreso than usual, to the stairs in the living room leaving him behind in the kitchen. She glanced back toward the kitchen one time to make sure he hadn't followed her, then started up the stairs.

Oh holy hell, that hurt. No, there was no way she could walk up those stairs. She'd wrenched her hip too hard. Damnit. She looked again towards the kitchen, then reluctantly, slowly, carefully, got down on her hands and knees and started climbing the stairs, resisting the urge to cry every time she had to move her leg on her bad side.

She'd only gotten a quarter of the way up the stairs before strong arms grabbed her and hauled her up. She startled, then started to cry as Edward carefully adjusted her in his arms, carrying her up the stairs. "I can do this," she said past a frustrated sob.

"Riza, there's nothing wrong with accepting help," he told her. "I'm not helping out of pity, but because you're my friend."

She clung to him, wishing desperately she didn't need his help, wishing desperately she weren't that close to him, wishing desperately she could just send him home and return to how she'd been, working towards getting better. And wishing just as desperately that she didn't know that Edward was right; she'd never just 'get over' this injury, it'd haunt her the rest of her life.

She felt so useless.

He set her down in her room. "I'll see you in the morning, Riza. I expect you to ask for help getting downstairs if you need it."

She nodded, rubbing her eyes to wipe away the tears. He left, and she changed into her nightgown and crawled into bed, carefully laying on her good side.

Someday, she had to get over this. She couldn't live like this, relying on everyone else to do a simple thing like climb the stairs. Someday, she had to. She didn't know what else to do.

***

"Hallelujah," Riza said as the tap ran clear. "Edward, you did it."

Edward leaned against the counter. "Only took me a week and a half," he grumbled. "Okay, time to go fill that ditch in, then we'll get started on your roof."

She blinked at him. "What? Oh, no, Edward, you should go home."

"I'm not done helping my friend yet," Edward protested. "So I'm staying until that roof's done, and the painting, and that shutter, and the back patio stairs. You're not rid of me yet, Riza."

She sighed deeply. "This isn't an argument I'm winning, is it?" she asked, feeling tired from trying already. Arguing with Edward was worse than arguing with Roy, and she'd lost plenty of arguments with Roy, too. Roy usually at least humored her side of things. Edward just ran roughshod over any complaints.

He grinned. "Nope. I'll call Al and Winry and let them know. You go shower, you've gone long enough without a good cleaning."

She gave him an offended look. "Are you saying I smell bad?"

He laughed. "No, _I_ smell bad, but you've gone the longest without a proper shower."

She chuckled. "I can't deny that you are rather ripe. You go shower first, you've been working hard and sweating while I've had it easy."

He shrugged. "As you wish. You're the one that has to smell me. We'll take the rest of the day off and start on the roof tomorrow."

"Sounds good," she said. She sighed as he walked out of the room. Another how long around him? She was going to crack under the pressure of having him around. He was too _much_. Too bright, too beautiful, too kind and caring and just too much everything. Being in his presence was like being in the presence of the sun, warm and bright in her too cold world.

Well, Lieutenant Hawkeye was known for nothing if not her steady willpower. She'd just have to tough it out and hope he started wearing a shirt more often.

"Oh, Edward!" she called after him.

After a second, he reappeared halfway in the doorway, leaning back to poke his head into the room. "Yeah?"

"Do you have any clean clothes left?"

"Just my sleep clothes," he said. "The rest are sweat crusted."

She nodded. "Change into your sleep clothes after your shower, I'll wash the rest of your clothes while you shower."

He held out an acknowledging thumbs up before disappearing again. She let out another sigh, hoping his sleep clothes consisted of a shirt. She hadn't thought of that, but then, there was little point of him showering only to change into filthy clothes. She could wash her own clothes at the same time.

She hobbled up the stairs, collecting clothing once Ed was in the shower, collected some of her own clothes and carefully made her way back down the stais with one arm full of clothing.

Washing was a tedious job, but having clean water to do it made it seem less a chore after so long of not being able to do it at all. She was still washing when Ed came downstairs, hair wet and dressed in sweatpants and a tank top. Oh thank god, he was wearing a shirt. Not much of one, but it was better than nothing.

"I can take that over, if you want, while you go shower," he said.

She started to protest, realized that her pride, at least in this case, was a little silly and she stood. "By all means. There's not much left, just hanging to do. Thank you, Edward."

A shower sounded wonderful. A bath would be better, but she didn't want to take too long while she had company, and it was almost lunch time, so a shower would do. It'd be easier to clean in anyway. She gathered up her nightgown and a towel and went into the bathroom.

The spray felt good as she scrubbed at grimy hair and skin, ready to take it all off and start with fresh new skin. That'd be silly, though, and possibly painful, so she just scrubbed the feeling of ick off herself and turned off the water. She was exceedingly careful as she stepped out, dried herself off, and pulled on her nightgown. She felt a little strange in it before bedtime but all her clothes were being cleaned, so it was either that or run around naked.

She limped back down the stairs to find Ed already starting lunch. "I can do that, Edward," she said.

He looked back at her, smiling. "I figured I'd treat today. They're just sandwiches, it's not like they're hard to make. Sit down, I'll feed us today. I got dinner, too."

"Edward, you've been putting in all this work, I can't possibly expect you to cook, too."

"I want to," he protested. "I don't get to cook often, Al doesn't believe I can."

"Is there a reason for that?" she asked with a warily amused tone.

He shook his head. "I never showed much interest before," he admitted. " But I got a few recipes from Breda and according to him, I didn't do too badly with them."

"Well, then, if Breda approves, I will too. Thank you, Edward."

Edward laughed. "Is that the standard, if Breda approves, it's good?"

She smiled. "Well, not typically, but yes, if he likes it, then it's good food. He's something of a gourmet."

"He is, isn't he?" Edward set down her sandwich in front of her and took a seat across from her with his own.

They ate in silence, both exhausted from work and the last few days, happy to be clean and resting for awhile. She finally sighed, scratching at her scalp. "I feel I need another shower," she complained.

He grinned. "So do I, actually. Going awhile without one really makes you feel the need to scrub, doesn't it?"

She nodded. "It does. If you don't mind, I may take a bath and read for a bit."

"Oh hey, books. Something I didn't pack because I figured I'd spend the whole time on the well." He set his empty plate aside. "If I'd known you were R. Grumman, I would've packed one. I don't suppose you have any to share?"

She turned bright red, feeling her face grow hot. "I don't think you'd like the books I read," she said lamely, hoping he wouldn't pry or snoop and find out she read romance books. It was such a normal thing for a normal woman, but Riza had always put up the front of not being a normal woman, not pining for love. In a way, she didn't, but she sometimes did get very lonely, especially since moving out West.

Which is why her growing infatuation with Edward had happened so fast and hard. It was just loneliness. That was all.

He grinned, propping his chin on his fist. "What, do you read porn or something?"

"Edward!" She looked scandalized, then remembered that some of those books did rather border on pornographic and turned redder. "No, not exactly."

"Not exactly?"

"It's none of your business, Edward. I don't have any books you'd like."

He studied her with that wretched amused smile. "Romance? Winry reads them, I've read a couple. Not exactly porn, but some come close enough. How right am I?"

Oh curse Winry thrice over. She stammered a moment. "Please don't tell the general," she said. "It's one of my few concessions to being a normal woman and not the lieutenant he needs. He'd tease me ruthlessly for the rest of our lives."

He laughed. "Don't worry, the general won't hear it from me. I don't mind them, they're a little goofy sometimes, but then, I wouldn't know the first thing about love, so I'm probably not one to judge."

"Oh, most of them are terribly unrealistic," she admitted. "They're fiction for a reason."

He sat back. "You ever think of falling for someone, Riza?"

What on earth was he asking _that_ for? Had she shown something and now he was trying to let her down easy? Well, she'd have none of that. "It's crossed my mind a time or two, but I've always dismissed it. I'm too busy for romance."

"Even out here?"

She huffed. "Edward, you know why I'm out here. Even if I technically have time now, what am I going to do when I go back to work? I'll be too busy to continue the relationship."

"You mean you'll be too dedicated to another man," Ed said.

She looked down at her work-roughed hands. "That too," she admitted. "I don't think there's a man out there that would be willing to share attentions with the general the way he'd have to."

Edward nodded slowly, like he wasn't quite listening, looking down at the table. She worried, fretted over what she'd said wrong to earn that reaction. She went back over what she said, couldn't find anything wrong, just truthful. "Is something the matter, Edward?"

"Huh?" He looked up, then shook his head. "No, just wishing again that you'd listen to me about that injury. You're not going back to that job, Riza, and I think even you know it, you're just being stubborn."

She sighed. "Not this again, Edward. You don't understand, I have no choice. I don't have anything else to offer anyone." Maybe telling him the truth would get him off her back.

He looked at her, clearly incredulous, then got up. "Whatever you wanna think," he said. "I'm going to go lay down, I'm tired from that stupid well."

He left the room, leaving her wondering what exactly just happened. What had she said? What had he thought that changed things so abruptly? They were talking civilly and suddenly he turned cold. That coldness hurt, hurt deep. She'd been enjoying living in his sunlight, and clouds obscured the warmth.

Oh, she was just being ridiculous. She was infatuated, nothing more, and she'd get over it as soon as he left. If only she could convince him to leave the other chores he wanted to do around there for her, but she knew better than that. Not with her injury. No matter what had just happened between them, Edward considered her his friend, and she knew him well enough from over the years that he took that very seriously. He'd stick around until he was satisfied that she didn't have anything strenuous to do.

She'd never survive this. She was going to go mad. She couldn't possibly hope he'd return her feelings, and even if he did, so what? She had nothing to offer but a broken hip and a useless pair of hands. She couldn't cook, cleaning was difficult, she could offer him company and nothing more, and she wasn't even good at that.

Maybe she'd lie down, too. Clear her mind. Or at least shut it up for awhile.


	3. I Can Love You Like That

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Her smile was the light to him, and he wanted to kiss away the clouds forever.

_They read you Cinderella;_   
_You hoped it would come true,_   
_That one day your Prince Charming_   
_Would come rescue you._   
_You like romantic movies, you never will forget_   
_The way you felt when Romeo kissed Juliet._   
_And all this time that you've been waiting,_   
_You don't have to wait no more._   
-John Michael Montgomery

The sun was getting progressively warmer as winter finished giving over to a warm and very wet spring. Ed had gotten the ditch with the well filled in, and had debated what to work on next. There were so many things that needed his attention, the roof, the loose stair at the back door, the shutter, the paint. So much to do. Well, it's not like Al and Winry would miss him yet, and he could always just explain to them what was going on if they did and happened to call somehow. They'd encourage him to stay until Riza was settled, and Al would probably try to insist he join his brother.

Ed wasn't really wanting his brother and sister-in-law underfoot while he tried to convince Riza to give up on that job. He really wished she would, she was only hurting herself, in so many ways. How long had she believed she had nothing to offer but her guns? Too long, it sounded like, if she truly believed that.

He wondered if she knew how much she had to offer a man who loved her. How strong she still was, despite her injury.

Annoyed at himself, he reined his thoughts back in as he hammered on the back step. That was a clear and present threat to Riza, so that had won as first attention. She was only interested in Mustang, she'd never share herself with anyone else, so there wasn't much point in letting himself fall any further. But he was still her friend, and still concerned for her, so he'd stay and do the chores he needed to do to help her, then he'd go on his way and pretend this whole fiasco had never happened.

His hammer hit that nail a little harder than necessary, leaving a lovely imprint of the hammer head on the wood around the nail. He sighed. He was letting himself get distracted. But the stair was almost done, just another nail and then he could start on the roof.

"Edward?"

He looked up to find bare, smooth-shaved legs to the knee right at eye level. Attractive legs, and if he looked higher, he could almost see up her dress as he looked up at Riza. She had a glass of water in her hand. "Would you like something to drink? It's getting warm out."

For heartbeats, he couldn't answer, taking in the sight of her, every little detail that he wanted to commit to memory, no matter how hopeless his feelings for her were. A first love he could remember fondly someday.

He swallowed tightly and nodded, reaching up for the glass. "Thank you," he said hoarsely, voice unsteady. She had no idea how beautiful she was, how strong she was, how much he wanted her and he'd give anything right then to be able to touch her, hold her, kiss her. But he focused on his water, emptying the glass and handing it back. "Thanks," he said again. "I'm almost done here, then you won't have to worry about tripping on this step."

She smiled, lighting up his world. "Thank you, Edward," she said. "That stair's been a trouble for me and I never got around to fixing it. I haven't had a good enough day for my hip to do it. With the warmer weather, I might've, but over the winter, it wasn't possible."

He gave her a weak smile. "You know, if you moved back East, you wouldn't have near the problems with your hip in the winter that you have out here."

"Probably," she admitted. "But there's too many people who know me in the East that wouldn't give me the space I need to heal."

_Like me,_ he heard the unspoken words and resisted the urge to sigh, or scold, or otherwise show that he heard and cared. "Well, your choice," he said. "I'm not going to fight you on the issue." He went back to hammering on the back step.

She didn't walk away, or say thank you for his surrender to her issues, like he expected. He peered up at her from under his hair. She was frowning, clutching her cane with more strength than she usually did. "Did I say something wrong?" she asked. "You usually argue with me."

He shrugged, pounding in the last nail wordlessly, then got up. "Step's finished." He started towards the barn where he'd been keeping tools for the jobs around the house. He heard her following after him.

"Edward? Please, Edward, I can't walk as fast as you."

He stopped and turned to her,waiting. "I thought you were trying to keep up," he said. "You usually don't admit you can't do it."

She looked like he'd just slapped her. Then an angry, wet-eyed look came over her face and she gripped her cane tightly. "Aren't you the one that says to stop being so prideful?" she demanded.

"Oh, _now_ you're going to admit that?" he snapped. "After you've decided you had nothing to offer anyone, you're just going to sit out here and give up and feel sorry for yourself?"

Again, she looked like she'd been slapped. "Edward, what's gotten into you?" She looked on the verge of tears. "You've never been this cruel to me."

No, he hadn't. His own frustrations had gotten away with him, not for the first time in his life, and he'd hurt someone he loved as a result. Goddamnit. He sighed and walked over to her, impulsively hugging her. "I'm sorry," he said quietly.

She shivered against him, holding onto him tightly with one arm. Was she crying? "I'm _trying_ ," she said, voice thick. "I know you want me to give up, but I don't-"

He drew back, cutting her off. "I never said I wanted you to give up," he said. "I said you should accept that you can only go so far. Go as far as you can, but don't hurt yourself trying to do the impossible."

She looked up at him with accusation in her eyes. "Why not? You did."

"Yeah, and I was a dumb kid," he said. "Not a good example to follow. It nearly got everybody killed. Riza, the type of injury you have, you will never be military again. Just like I will never swim again. I sink like a rock because of the weight of my automail. _That's_ almost drowned me before. There's always going to be things you used to do that you can't anymore. Accept them, and move past them. Do what you _can_ , not what you can't."

She looked down, closing her eyes. "I don't know what to do now," she admitted. "I've been the lieutenant so long, I don't know what else I'm good for."

"You can still walk, can't you?" he said, then put a hand under her chin, lifting her head. "So walk forward. You can find something. I'd say you're doing fine here, but I'm worried about you being alone if you fall."

"I can't afford a caretaker, Edward," she said.

"I'm not a caretaker. I'm a friend."

She blinked at him. "Yes, and eventually, you will go home."

"I'll stay as long as I can," he promised, stepping carefully. As far as he could tell, she wouldn't be interested in a relationship, but she was accepting his friendship. Maybe he could get her to move back East while he was staying with her, maybe move in with her grandparents so she wasn't alone or _something_.

Riza drew back. "I'm sorry. I interrupted your work. What were you going to start on next, and can I help?"

Ed shook his head. "I was about to start on the roof. Other than hold the ladder for me to get up there, I can handle it."

"I'll do that then."

He resisted the urge to sigh as he went to the barn, Riza right behind him and a step to the left. This was going to be a very long stay. So much to do, and Riza right there, he'd go absolutely crazy. Between trying to convince her to move elsewhere, trying to convince her she was worth something more than the lieutenant, and trying hard to keep his distance while still doing all that, he'd go completely off his nut.

This would be so much easier if he thought for even half a second she returned his feelings, or would even humor them.

So much to do. May as well get started.

***

"Yo, Riza!" Ed called down as she stepped outside with Hayate.

She shielded her eyes from the sun as she looked up to where Ed was on the roof, working on reshingling. "Yes, Edward?"

Ed walked down to the edge of the roof. "I think we need a new ladder." He pointed over to the old one, leaning heavily against the side of the house, with the top rung broken.

"Oh no, did you hurt yourself?" she asked, concern lacing her voice.

He shook his head. "Naw, startled me more than anything, but it's definitely not suitable to hold my weight. I'm not sure it could've held my weight even without automail. That thing's pretty shaky. Feel like going into town with me to buy one?"

She glanced over at Hayate, then back up to Ed. "Can't you use alchemy to fix this one?"

He flashed her a shit-eating grin. "I could, but I'd rather charge a new one to Mustang's wallet."

She gave him a tired look that didn't hide her amusement. "You're terrible, Edward."

"Hey, he wants you taken care of, he's sent the best, he's getting the best. The best is expensive."

She laughed. "The best is also an alchemist who can make his own tools. But all right. I think it's time for a grocery trip anyway. Your cooking is going through my food faster than my soup does."

"You're also feeding two people," he said. "I'll cover food this time, you can get it next time. Square deal?"

"All right. I'll go hitch up Rosie. Can you get down safely without that ladder?"

He nodded. "Oh yeah, I've jumped from higher than this and been fine."

She put her free hand on her good hip. "Edward, don't endanger yourself."

"Oh, worry wart," he scoffed. "You're as bad as Al. But if it'll make you feel better." He clapped his hands and summoned a hand of earth from the ground beside the house, stepped on it, and then transmuted it back into the ground, giving him a handy elevator down. "There, that better?"

She stared, then shook her head. "Why don't you just do that instead of using a ladder?"

He laughed. "Because, my teacher taught us to use mundane methods whenever possible. I don't always listen very well, but it's nice sometimes to do hard labor the old-fashioned way." Besides, he was trying to find excuses to stay with her longer, no matter how batty it was driving him. She may never love him, but being near to her, helping her, that made it better than simply pining.

"I don't understand," she said as she called Hayate back to her. "If you have alchemy, why not use it?" She opened the back door open and grabbed the dog's leash off the wall and snapped it on his collar.

Ed shrugged. "I don't entirely get her reasoning either," he said. "I like my alchemy too much, and I work hard at it. But like I said, sometimes I just like to do it the hard way. This way, I can pay more attention to details and get it right the first time."

"I suppose that makes sense," she said, limping towards the barn where the cart and Rosie were. She gave him a sly look. "Plus, it gives you more time to harass me into taking care of myself, right?"

He turned red. "Gives me more time to be around a friend and away from the honeymooners."

She smiled, patting his shoulder. "I understand, Edward. I don't mind having you around, actually. I'm certainly eating better than I usually do with you around. And I like the company."

Sensing an opportunity, he put an arm around her shoulders, slowing his walk to match hers. "What're you going to do when I'm gone?"

For a long moment, she didn't answer, her smile dimming and taking with it the light. "I suppose I'll have to readjust."

He wanted her smile back. He offered one of his own, hoping to draw out that light again. "Then I'll just have to visit often, won't I?"

"Oh, Edward, I can't ask you to drop everything and travel across the whole country just to visit me."

"You're not asking me," he said. "I'm saying I'm going to do it."

Slowly, that smile came back and it felt like the clouds parted. "If you're sure you can, with your job."

"I work for the general now, Riza," he reminded her, basking in the glow of her smile. "He'll be more than happy to have me checking in on you. I'll even be nice to him and let him think I'm doing it for him."

"That wouldn't be a difficult fraud to pull off," she admitted, her smile softening into something that sent his head reeling. How he wanted to kiss those soft lips, to kiss that smile until it warmed him.

But that would probably get him slapped and effectively end his visit, or any future visits.

He helped her hitch up Rosie to the cart, then helped her climb up into her seat. Hayate bounded up behind her, settling himself in the middle as Ed walked around and climbed in on the other side. "Hey, Muttly," he said, scritching one of Hayate's ears as he settled in. "You going on a trip? You gonna keep your human safe for me?"

The dog barked eagerly, his entire body practically squirming on the seat. Riza laughed. "He loves trips into town. They're a rare treat for him."

"All the new smells and people to see," Ed said. "And time spent with Mom instead of stuck inside at the house."

Riza laughed. "With 'Mom', huh? You're not the first person to call me that in relation to Hayate. It's a silly thing, but I suppose it's harmless."

"Oh, we tease Al all the time about his cat," Ed said. "That cat clings to him like a small child. I have never seen such a needy cat before."

"And I suppose Alphonse just encourages this?" She glanced at him.

Ed nodded. "Oh yeah, he loves having a furry shadow. I really think that cat is in for a surprise when he and Winry have a kid and a baby starts arguing with it for Al's attention."

"They're planning on children?"

Ed kicked his feet up on the front of the cart, sitting back. "I think so. They haven't said words about _not_ have kids, anyway, so I'd guess so. I have no interest in them, but I also am not the one with a wife that's had her kids' names picked out since she was five. Of course, she had pretty dumb names picked out, so she may have changed her mind since growing up. I dunno."

Riza looked over at him, reaching forward and shooing his feet back onto the floor of the cart as he laughed. "You have no interest in children?"

He shook his head. "Never wanted 'em. I'd make a crappy dad. Mustang's the closest to an example of one I got, since my old man left when we were so little. And I'm too impatient, I'd get bored with a baby. I fully intend on being the fun uncle who sugars them up, teaches them bad words, then sends 'em home to Al and Winry, though." He flashed her a bratty grin.

She rolled her eyes, shaking her head in clear exasperation. "You're incorrigible, Edward."

"I try to be. What about you, ever thought about kids?"

"Hayate is the only one I want," she said, "since you and the general insist on calling me his mother."

Ed laughed. "Well, it's not inappropriate," he said. "Not that I think you should want them, mind if I ask why you don't?

She shrugged. "I was an only child, I value my privacy, and I simply never had interest in most domestic goals. Believe me, I avoid romance books that involve children. They ruin the romance for me."

"Can't say that I blame you," Ed said. "I never thought kids were very romantic, as much as just something you did when you got married. But I remember how I was as a kid. No matter who my spouse was, I know we wouldn't be able to keep up with a kid from my genetics."

That got a laugh out of Riza. "I wasn't there for most of your childhood, but what I remember you putting the poor general through, I can believe that."

"You could've disagreed with me to ease my ego," he grumbled.

"I never did that sort of thing for the general, I'm not going to do it for you," she said with a stern tone that Ed had come to recognize as not really all that serious.

"Not even if I bat my pretty eyes at you?"

She stared straight ahead for a moment, then looked at him with a placid expression. "I think that would make me more laugh, Edward."

"Yeah, me too," he said.

Hayate started barking as they reached town, wiggling happily in his seat. Ed put a hand on his neck. "Settle down, pup."

"Hayate, be calm," Riza said, glancing down at her dog out of the corner of her eye. Hayate sat still, for the most part, quivering slightly in excitement.

"Boy, he really gets excited about trips to town, doesn't he?" Ed commented, eyeing the dog as they rode up in front of the general store.

"He rarely gets to go out anymore," Riza explained. "He used to go everywhere with me, but because I need a hand free for my cane, I can't take him with me and have a free hand to carry whatever I might buy."

Ed hopped down out of the cart once it was settled outside. "Well, that's what you have me for," he said. "You get the dog, I'll get the ladder and the food."

"That hardly seems fair, Edward," she protested.

He gave her a look she was bound to be familiar with by now, one that said not to argue with him, because she would lose. "The ladder was my idea, and I'm the one with free hands."

"But- oh, all right," she said with a sigh. She grabbed Hayate's leash and carefully got down out of the cart, Hayate bounding off behind her and obediently falling into step at her side. Ed waited for them to get around the cart, then joined Hayate at Riza's side.

Ed got the ladder bought and returned to the cart before rejoining Riza, picking out food to get them through another week. They argued a bit about what to pick up; Riza was insisting on the cheapest possible since she'd agreed to let Ed buy this time and Ed wanted higher quality food for them. They finally packed up their groceries into the back of their cart and headed back towards Riza's homestead.

"I think I'll get back to the roof tomorrow," Ed said, eyeing the sky. "By the time we get home, it'll be nearing dinner time."

Riza looked westward at the low-hanging sun. "I agree."

Ed was relieved she didn't argue, not that he fully expected her to. It wasn't something she'd make much noise about, since he'd firmly browbeaten her into accepting that the hard labor around the place was his domain, but after arguing over groceries of all stupid things, he was braced for her to be contrary.

He loved her dearly, but lord, she was a strong-willed, stubborn woman. If this was what she was like for Mustang, no wonder he'd never had patience leftover for Ed. Of course, if Ed were honest with himself, that was a lot of what he loved about her. Even when it caused arguments.

She was probably getting tired of the arguments, though. Ed wondered sometimes how long she'd put up with it before she said 'fuck it' and chased him off. Well, he'd just push his luck until he got as much done around the place for her as he could.

When they arrived, Ed directed Riza to taking care of Rosie while he got the ladder out of the way. Since they were home, Hayate could come off his leash and free up one of Riza's hands to help with groceries, which seemed to soothe her ruffled pride a bit. Ed was finding that when he could maximize what she did without endangering her hip, she was a much happier and easier person to deal with.

Groceries were put away in silence; Ed had been cooking for so many days that he didn't need to be directed to where things went.

She sat down at the kitchen table once everything was done with a satisfied look on her face. "Today was productive," she said.

"What'd you do while I was on the roof?" Ed asked, sitting down across from her.

"Cleaned the kitchen, took out the rugs. I couldn't finish them, there's still one on the line, but the others are back in their proper places."

He gave her a look. "You didn't try to carry them all at once, did you?"

She shook her head. "No, Edward, I didn't. I'm not sure I could even without my injury. They're big rugs."

"How'd you get them back inside without dragging them?" he asked, getting up and starting a pot of coffee.

"Would you put the kettle on for me?" she said before answering. "I put the front part on my shoulder, and the rest on a wagon that I built for this purpose."

He put the tea kettle onto a burner and turned it on. "You built a wagon?"

"I did, yes. Just a little wooden one, it wasn't hard."

He turned and leaned against the counter while his coffee perced and her tea water boiled. "I didn't know you could build things."

She smiled. "Just an old hobby I picked up from Grandfather," she said. "I'm much better with bird houses."

"I had no idea you did that sort of thing," he admitted, pulling out two mugs. One he set aside for his coffee, the other he put a tea bag into. "Can you still do it with your hip?"

She nodded. "Oh yes, it's a sit down hobby. Well, I suppose I could build something bigger that would require me to be on my feet, but most things I make are small. I made that squirrel feeder out on the front tree, and the two bird feeders that hang from the porch."

"You do good work," he said, pouring her water, then his coffee, and walking over to the table, handing her her tea before sitting down. "Although the squirrels don't seem to get the bird feeders are for the birds and the squirrel feeder is for them."

She laughed. "No, they don't. Squirrels think any food is for them. But the birds get plenty, so I'm not concerned."

"I might get you to make a scratching post for Boots before I leave," he said.

She lit up. "I wouldn't mind, as long as we stopped in town to get the wood. Maybe some carpet scraps to cover it with." She took a sip of her tea. "So he named his cat 'Boots'?"

"Yeah." Ed took a swallow of coffee. Bleh, one thing he missed about civilization in East City was the better coffee. "She's an orange tabby, but all four of her paws are completely white."

"She sounds like a beautiful animal," Riza said. "How does Winry feel about the cat?"

"She loves animals, so as long as Al's happy, she's happy," Ed said. "I like cats, always wanted one, so Boots is kind of a nice addition to the family."

Riza looked over at Hayate, who was settled by her feet with one of his toys, chewing on it, oblivious to the conversation. "What about dogs?" she asked.

"Huh? Oh, no, I like dogs, too. We grew up with Den. Winry still misses her, but she passed on not long after Grandma did. We figure heart break. Den was really attached to Grandma."

"I'm so sorry to hear about that," she said, looking still at Hayate. "I worry what will happen to him if something happens to me."

Ed frowned. "Nothing's going to happen to you. But if you're worried, I'll take him if something happens. I can't guarantee what happened to Den won't happen to him, but he'll be cared for, at least."

She smiled at him. "That's all I ask, Edward. I was hoping you'd offer."

He shook his head. "I wouldn't leave you and yours in the lurch. Although your grandparents might fight me for custody rights of the grandchild."

She laughed. "Oh, don't start that again. Weren't you going to make dinner?"

Ed glanced outside the window at the setting sun as the sky began to turn a vivid shade of red. "Red sky by night. We're in for some good weather." He set aside his coffee and stood. "Yeah, I'll start on dinner. Any preferences tonight?"

She gave him a weak smile. "Just some soup and maybe sandwiches would be fine by me, Edward. I'm not feeling very adventurous tonight."

"You sure? I can make something more filling," he said.

She nodded. "I'm sure. I'm not very hungry."

"All right, but tomorrow, you're eating proper."

She grinned. "Yes, sir, anything else, sir?"

"Oh god." Ed rolled his eyes. "Don't call me that, that's what you call Mustang and that just made me wiggy."

That got her to laugh. "Oh, Edward, you two are more alike than you think. Dealing with him isn't unlike dealing with you, although I suspect you're more stubborn than he is, if such a thing is possible."

He gave her an unhappy look. "I am nothing like that jackass. I don't go around picking on twelve year old kids for hitting their growth spurts late."

She laughed some more, a sound so wonderful to him that the hit to his dignity this conversation was making him take was well worth it. "No, but you're the type to pick on a younger brother for just about anything he'll let you, aren't you? The general looks at you like family, Edward, always has. And don't tell him I told you this, but he was the youngest brother of several sisters. He was just passing along to you what he learned from them."

Ed grumbled as he started up the soup, starting with a condensed canned base and adding some veggies to it. "I'll remember to find these sisters and thank them for turning him into a grade A jackass for me."

She got up, her cane thumping lightly along with her steps as she walked up behind him, reaching around him and stealing a chopped carrot piece. "I think it's natural, Edward," she said.

He set down his knife and turned, very aware of how close they were, how easy it would be to pull her into his embrace, to kiss her, to take her away from Mustang and the military and impossible dreams and take her home to a dream within reach, a happy life with a family and pets and nieces and nephews to spoil and teach and send home to their parents.

"Who said you could get into the food?" he demanded, teasing.

She smiled at him, crinkling her nose cutely. "I did." She reached around him, stealing another piece. He caught her wrist, leaning in with a disapproving look. She laughed, rested her forehead on his, then popped the carrot piece into her mouth when the closeness made him loosen his grip, and gave it a pointed crunch.

So close. So easy to touch. He sighed. "Riza, what are we doing?" he asked, not moving.

She blinked, lifting her head just a touch, just enough to look at him properly. "I thought you were making dinner and I was hindering."

Nothing. It wasn't reciprocated, that easy intimacy not romantically inclined.

But maybe.

Maybe if he didn't do or say something, anything, to try to win her over, he'd go insane. He'd miss his only chance. Maybe she'd slap him, maybe she'd send him home, maybe the rest of his visit would be horribly awkward and full of avoiding each other, but if he didn't _try_ , didn't see if maybe she didn't return his feelings, he'd never know, and he wasn't the kind to like to live with that sort of regret.

He pulled her closer again, leaning in and pressing his lips firmly against hers, cupping the back of her head. She gasped against his lips, then wrapped her arms around his neck, returning the kiss as she parted her lips against his. He took the invitation and nibbled her lower lip, tasting her as he kissed her to steal her breath away.

She trembled against him, clinging to him. He held her like she might disappear if he let go, like a soap bubble dream, gone upon waking without a trace left behind.

When he finally let her go, she nuzzled him, burying her face against his neck. "Edward," she breathed quietly. "I've been so scared you didn't feel this way."

"We've both been scared," he said, voice barely above a whisper in her ear. "I thought for sure you'd whack my kneecaps with your cane for this."

She laughed, drawing back and staring up at him with the adoration he'd been hoping to see there. "I'd be more likely to chase you off with my shotgun."

"Give me a headstart, you crazy old woman," he said with a smile.

"Get off my lawn, youngster," she said with a flippant grin. Laughing, he kissed her again. "Edward, the soup!" she said against his lips.

"Huh? Oh shit." He let go of her, turning around and stirring the soup, hoping it hadn't burned. "Oh, goddamnit," he muttered, pulling out a string of burned soup from the bottom of the pan with the whisk. "Well, uh, how about sandwiches for dinner?" He looked back at her.

She stepped around to his side, making a face at the food. "I think that'd be a wonderful idea."

Shaking his head, Ed turned off the burner. "Is Hayate allowed table scraps?" he asked.

Riza glanced over at Hayate, who was still sitting by her chair with his chewtoy, watching them both curiously. "I wouldn't curse my dog with burned food, Edward," she said.

He eyed the dog. "I guess that is kinda mean of me, huh? Well, the wildlife will eat it."

"I'll start on the sandwiches while you take that out," she said. He let her do that while he took the hot pan outside and dumped its contents on the other side of her yard's fence, into the wild grass. He scraped out the gunk, then took the pan back inside, where Riza was making two sandwiches with cold cuts. "I hope you like turkey, because it's what you bought me," she said, giving him a pointed look.

"What, don't you like the gobblers?" he asked, taking the pan and running hot water into it to let it soak.

"I do, but I don't have it that often," she said. "My choice would've been chicken or ham."

"Sorry." He watched her, doing such a simple task as assembling sandwiches, and even then she was beautiful. Had he really kissed her? Had she really kissed him back? It seemed so surreal that he was afraid to believe it true, lest he'd been daydreaming it.

She looked at him, turning red as she smiled. "Did you want to eat?" she asked, holding out a plate with a finished sandwich. He took it from her slowly, never taking his eyes off of her. She turned redder. "What? Did I get mayonnaise on my nose or something?"

He set aside his plate and pulled her close to him, kissing her again, and again she wrapped her arms around his neck, holding on tight as he nipped and nibbled at her lips. When he pulled back, she was looking at him with a lit up smile on her face, breathless and wet-eyed. "So this is real?" she asked quietly.

"Seems to be," he said, breathing an issue after that kiss. He kissed her once more, briefly, then let her go. "But what is also real is the fact that my stomach's complaining that there's food within reach and I'm not feeding it."

She laughed. "Edward, your appetite." She grabbed her plate and walked over to the table, settling down in her usual spot. He took his usual spot across from her, never taking his eyes off her. She blushed furiously, looking down at her food. "Edward, your sandwich. Please eat it before you make me too nervous to eat mine."

"Huh? Oh, right, sorry." He focused on his own food, occasionally glancing up at her as she ate. She was still a flattering shade of red, glancing up at him occasionally, then shyly looking back to her food. 

If his stomach hadn't needed the food, he might've just abandoned their plates and let them take leave of their senses completely. But his growling stomach kept him grounded, kept him slowed down. Just because they were on kissing terms didn't mean much, not yet, not until they'd discussed the terms of their relationship. Like calm, rational adults. He'd think with the _right_ head in this, for god's sake.

Riza silently took their empty plates when they were done and put them in the sink to be dealt with at a later time. It wasn't like they needed scrubbing, they'd only had crumbs on them. She took a seat across from him. "So what does this mean for us, Edward?" She clearly wanted to take the lead on things, and he was inclined to let her for the moment. Mostly because his rational sense was still hanging around somewhere ten miles out.

He looked down at the table. "If it means moving out here, then so be it, but I want-" He took a breath, sighing deeply. "I want a relationship with you. I've been falling for awhile now."

She turned bright red again, looking down at her hands. "Surely you could do better than me, Edward. I'm a used up dog of the military."

"I don't _want_ to 'do better', by whatever definition you have for that," he argued. "I want _you_. Is that so hard to believe?"

She looked up at him, and her eyes were wet. "Yes? I have nothing to offer you, Edward. I'm not conventionally pretty, I have no domestic skills besides what I've learned out here, and I'm a cripple who will never be back at her old level of mobility. I'll always have days where I can't get up steps without help or crawling. That's not much to give."

He got up and walked over to her, kneeling in front of her and pulling her into a hug. "No, but you got a lot of love to offer," he said quietly into her ear. "And that's what I want. I don't mind if I have to help you around sometimes, I don't mind if I have to take over chores some days, I've never minded doing things for my loved ones. I just want their love in return, that's all I ask, all I want." He drew back, and lifted a hand to wipe away a tear that had escaped along her cheek. "And I don't care for conventional beauty. I think you're beautiful just how you are. And no amount of self-deprecation can convince me otherwise."

Ed had never seen Riza cry, not before then, when she clung to him, resting her face against his shoulder, sobbing quietly. "Oh, Edward, please don't say this just to change your mind."

He held her tightly, rubbing her back soothingly. "Hey, hey now, no crying. I'm not changing my mind. I love you, Riza, I don't change my mind on those things."

She sniffed, drawing back. "Do you think we can go to bed early tonight?"

He was quiet a moment. "Are you sure?"

She smiled at him. "We don't have to do anything, my hip's not up for it anyway. I just-" She looked down at her hands. "I suppose I don't want to be alone anymore."

The thought, the idea of just curling up in bed and holding her appealed to him. "Let's go sit outside, watch the sunset, let Hayate play a bit, then we'll go to bed," he said.

She looked up at him. "Thank you, Edward." Her hand was warm as she lifted it to his cheek. "How'd I get so lucky?"

He kissed the palm of her hand. "Same way I did."

She kissed him, softly, then straightened and stood, holding her left hand out for him as she grabbed her cane with her other. "Shall we?"

Ed took her hand and stood, smiling more than he had in a long time.


	4. The Red Strokes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A warm spring night, a new relationship, and only the moon can see them.

_Steam on the window, salt in a kiss._   
_Two hearts have never pounded like this._   
_Inspired by a vision,_   
_That they can't command._   
_Erasing the borders_   
_With each brush of a hand._   
-Garth Brooks

Riza awoke slowly, aware of the bright sunlight coming through her bedroom window, the sounds of the morning birds twittering away on her bird feeders located just below her window, and the feeling of Edward snuggled up against her back, one arm draped over her waist.

She smiled, curling back against him, content to remain there for as long as she could. She could get used to waking up like this, in his embrace, warm and safe and hidden away from all her problems. He loved her, what did she need the military for? She wanted to sing, even if that would probably not be a good idea, given that her voice was mediocre at best. And she'd wake Edward, and she didn't want that, didn't want to leave this sensation just yet.

She'd dozed back off when she felt Edward's lips on the back of her sensitive neck and she shuddered. "Good morning," she said in a whisper, scared to break the morning serenity with speaking out loud.

He nuzzled her, then pushed himself up on his elbow a bit, looking past her. She looked up at him, then in the direction he was looking, finding herself looking right at her clock. It said ten. That couldn't be right, could it? She usually got up at seven, eight on bad days.

She saw him smile out of the corner of her eye and looked up at him. He grinned. "Looks like we slept in." He kissed her, a smoky sort of kiss, heated and slow, curling her toes and warming her blood.

"Do we have to get up?" she asked, curling her fingers against his cheek.

He kissed the tips of her fingers. "Well, not strictly, no, but I should work on the roof while we have good weather. And I don't think your bad hip would appreciate you staying in bed all day."

"Damn. You and your logic."

He chuckled. "It's a pesky thing, isn't it? Al thwarts me with it all the time." He kissed her, then yawned, sitting up and letting cold air hit her as he took the covers with him. She whined before she could help herself, and he leaned over her, kissing her on the cheek. "Come on, you, up."

"Oh, all right," she said, pushing herself up into a sitting position, legs dangling over the edge of her bed. Her feet hit the floor and she winced. The sunlight may be warm, but spring still had her floor cold.

She heard the door close behind and she looked back over her shoulder, saw that he'd left and closed the door to give her privacy. Right, his clothes were in his own room, they weren't on quite those intimate terms yet. She wanted it, worried that he may never want it, but that was a silly worry. People in love did that eventually. Her only real, legitimate worry was that her hip may never be up for lovemaking.

That possibility loomed ugly before her.

Well, something to worry about another time, for the moment. Right now, she needed to get dressed and join him for breakfast. His breakfasts were a morning perk, right up there with her strongest tea.

She got up and got dressed, pulling on a soft red cotton dress, just warm enough to ward off the chill of spring, but cool enough to welcome the heat of summer. And it was one Edward had complimented before, so obviously, it was something he liked. She checked herself in the mirror, brushing out the bedhead tangles, then braided her hair over her shoulder. There. Presentable.

She grabbed her cane and made her careful way down the stairs, praying, as she did every time, that every step her hip would cooperate with her, not give out and sending her tumbling. 

Food hadn't been started yet, Edward just now pulling out a pan. but he was dressed for the day, jeans and a tank top that showed off his automail arm and some of the scarring around the port, right around his collar bone. She didn't find it unattractive at all, just another mark of the love he had to give. Love he was now sharing with her. She felt so giddy she could dance.

Edward smiled back at her. "Hey. Sit down, I'll cook."

"You usually do."

"That's because your idea of breakfast is dry toast and tea," he said with a laugh.

She frowned. "I do not eat dry toast. Heathen. And you forgot oatmeal."

He shook his head, his back to her as he cracked eggs onto the frying pan. "How could I _ever_ forget oatmeal? You eat the best breakfast ever."

"Not all of us can cook, Edward."

"Yeah, but scrambled eggs to go with that for some protein aren't hard. Just crack the eggs and annoy them until they're cooked." He grinned back at her.

"That may be the most creative way to describe making food I've ever heard," she said. "Breda was too serious about the art to be creative."

Edward laughed. "Breda takes food seriously. I take eating seriously, but that's because of my automail. It's an energy hog. And if I'm going to be working today, I need the food."

"I know, Edward," she said. "I don't mind you making so much food. I know you eat most of it anyway. Which, I may add before you worry I'm not getting enough, is fine by me. I can't exercise like I used to, I don't want to eat so much and have to carry extra weight around on my bad hip."

"Next time we're around Winry, I'll have her help you come up with some rehab exercises you can do to keep your muscles strong without aggravating your hip," he said. "Rehab's sort of part of the process of getting automail, so she's pretty multi-functional. Surgeon, engineer, physical therapist, all rolled into one wrench-flinging package. So she can help you."

She smiled. "That's very kind of you. Are you sure she'd be willing to?"

"Oh yeah, she likes you," Edward assured her. "And you're important to me, that's good enough for her."

Riza smiled faintly. "It makes me acceptable, hm?"

Edward looked at her over his shoulder. "It makes you _family_ , Riza. We Elrics take that seriously, and she's no different."

Family. The idea of being family to the Elric family, a family she'd watched grow over the years, a family she'd seen show loyalty even she wasn't sure she could match, it was a bit intimidating. But Edward had assured her of what she had to offer him, what he wanted from her, and she knew she could do that much.

"I suppose I should get used to that," she said as he served up the food, sausage patties and scrambled eggs with toast. "It smells delicious as usual, Edward."

"Thanks," he said, putting the pan in the sink and running hot water over it before taking his seat with his food. "Any plans for the day while I labor away in the hot sun?"

She crinkled up her nose. "Watch you, maybe?"

He actually turned red at that. "That'd be boring, Riza."

She laughed. "Yes, but it was worth it for that look on your face. No, I figure I'll finish the rugs, then clean a bit, then maybe read a book. I have a few more in a series I haven't finished."

"Interested in going out for dinner tonight?" he asked.

She blinked. "Where to? There's not really any place around here."

He looked back at his food. "Well, there's Chez Bubba. I'd rather take you to some place with a bit more class than to have the name 'Bubba' in it, but I think we may be out of luck on that one."

"I forgot about that place," she admitted, cutting into a sausage. "I've never gone there, so I suppose it just slipped my mind."

"Well, they have good barbecue," he said. "If you're interested."

Guilt settled on her. "I. I suppose I could give it a try." She hated barbecue! And there was nowhere else they could go in this tiny nowhere town.

He studied her for a moment, and she hated that look, like he was seeing right through her. "Never had barbecue?"

"Never liked it," she confessed, feeling her face on fire. She was sabotaging their first date before they'd even gone on it. Why had she chosen such a backwater town out in the sticks?

"Really?" He blinked. "Well, I'll remember not to cook any for you then." He smiled. "Good information to have. Okay, well, that's out, I didn't notice if they have anything other than barbecue. If we had someone to look after the animals, I'd take you out of town to somewhere bigger nearby, but I don't think we know anyone around here well enough for that."

She looked down at her plate. "I'm sorry, Edward, I'm afraid we're trapped here."

"That's not your fault and you shouldn't feel bad," he told her. "If you'd chosen any other place but this one, I never would've gotten called into your life because of a dried up well. I'll just come up with another way to treat you."

She hadn't considered it that way. The idea of never having him warming her life like a new sun on the horizon scared her, now that she knew what she had. Well, maybe it _was_ just as well she'd picked this nowhere town in the boonies. "If you're certain," she conceded.

"I am. So eat." He finished off his plate, then stood. "I'm going to go get back on the roof, try to get that done before the spring storms hit and we're stuck with a leaky roof."

She smiled at him, feeling happier than she could remember being in a long time, if ever. She'd always felt the women in her romance books were silly things, so happy for something that they'd been just fine without before it came long, but having it now, she realized why those women were so starstruck after meeting their partners. It was a wonderful feeling, to be loved and held. She still wished they hadn't had to leave bed.

He put his plate in the sink, letting her deal with the domestic chores while he headed out. She finished her breakfast in silence, gave a small piece of sausage to Hayate, after making him go through his routine, then got up and started on the dishes. Mundane tasks didn't seem so dull now, free of that feeling of 'just another thing to do' that they'd taken on ever since she entered the military and had to grow up. Maybe this 'honeymoon' feeling wouldn't last and dishes would go back to being just another chore to get through, but for now, everything felt lighter, easier, happier.

She went about daily chores, starting with getting that last rug back into the house and on the floor. Around noon, she made sandwiches and went outside to let Edward know that lunch was ready.

Watching her step out of habit, even though Edward had repaired that bad step on her back stairs, she walked out into the backyard to look up at the roof. Edward had stripped out of his tanktop and flung it over the top run of his new ladder, and was crouched, pounding on the roof with his hammer and generally making a lot of noise.

But the sight of his bare back, the way muscles moved under skin, the way scars made their way across his shoulder girdle, the width of his shoulders, the size of his arms as he worked, were all very appealing, and she had to resist the urge to suggest he shower and she help him with washing his back. And other things.

Flushing furiously from her own fantasies, she let out an explosive sigh of air, then called up to him. "Edward, lunch is ready."

He looked back down at her, setting his hammer down. "I'll be right down. Don't let Hayate eat my share before I get there."

She laughed. "He knows better, Edward."

"Good," he said, sitting down on the edge of the roof and grabbing his shirt, pulling it back on. "I fight dirty when it comes to my food." He climbed down the ladder and walked over to her. "I'd offer you my arm, but I'm kinda sweaty and overheated," he said.

She stood up on her tiptoes, kissing his cheek. "Thank you for the offer, though," she said, trying to ignore the way her hip protested that whole tiptoe thing.

He grinned, following her inside. "So what'd you get done today so far?"

She shrugged. "Just the usual. The rug I hadn't gotten to yesterday, sweeping, dusting. I still need to scrub the floors, but I may put that off for tomorrow, depending on how my hip feels."

He pointed at her, giving her a stern look. "Don't overwork yourself. I mean that."

She sighed. "Edward, I know my limits," she assured him.

He sat down at the table, letting her bring him his plate. "Yeah, and you've been making a habit of pushing yourself past them," he reminded her. "I don't want to have to carry you up the stairs tonight, Riza."

She looked down at her plate as she grabbed it and walked over to join him at the table. "You won't have to," she said, not looking up at him. "Which is why I said I may put it off, depending on how my hip feels."

"Good." He took a bite of his sandwich, obviously lost in thought at that point.

She picked at her own food nervously. "You're showering tonight?" He made a noise of affirmation through a bite of sandwich. She looked up at him shyly. "Maybe I could wash your back for you, then."

He promptly choked on that bite he was working on, coughing and hacking once he got it down and reached for his water, sucking down half the glass. Riza stood, got behind him and clapped her hand on his back until he stopped coughing and shooed her away. "I'm sorry," she said, "that was forward of me."

"No, no," he said, coughed once more, took a drink, then sighed. "Wasn't that, Riza. Some of it was just timing. I wasn't expecting _that_ when I was trying to _chew_."

She blushed, fighting back the urge to laugh a bit. "Sorry," she said, feeling only slightly guilty. It _had_ been rather funny timing, in retrospect.

He looked at her until she felt herself blushing harder. "I don't think that'd be a good idea, Riza-"

She nodded, feeling miserably tiny, feeling unwanted and undesirable. "Okay, I apologize for-"

He reached over and put a finger to her lips. "I wasn't done," he said. "I don't think it'd be a good idea because I don't want us to lose our brains in the shower. If you think about the logistics of it, shower sex doesn't sound very comfortable or fun, especially not with your hip. I'd rather wait until we're in bed."

She looked up at him, relief flooding over her. She smiled, a bit watery-eyed. "Yes, that does sound more agreeable."

He brushed his fingers on his flesh hand, dirty and calloused, against her cheek. "Why don't you take the rest of the day off, so we know what your hip's up for tonight?"

She felt herself turning a furious shade of red. "I- ah, yes, I will." The her own evil streak kicked in and she grinned. "I think I'll take a bath while I wait on you."

He frowned. "Sure, give me mental images to distract me while I'm supposed to be working."

She laughed. "Don't worry, I won't get started without you."

"You better not," he grumbled, then downed the last of his sandwich, chased it with the rest of his water, then stood up. "Speaking of work, I better get back out there." He kissed her cheek before heading back outside with a wave.

Part of her dearly wished he didn't have to go back to work, that they could spend the rest of the day in bed, exploring each other, but that roof needed done before the storms of spring and summer hit. Responsibilities, as ever, took precedence.

She cleaned up the small mess lunch had made, then selected a new romance book to read while she soaked, and went upstairs to the bathroom. The chill in the air made the hot water welcome as she dumped some bath salts into the running water. She didn't have many left, she'd have to order some more from her grandfather. Nowhere around there sold something as non-essential as scented bath salts.

Although maybe Edward could make some. She'd have to ask.

She soaked until the water started turning tepid and her hip felt suitably relaxed from the waning heat. The book did nothing towards getting her out in a reasonable amount of time.

It was Edward's voice that pulled her out of her book and back to cooling water. "Riza? You okay in there?"

How long had she been in there? Enough time that her feet were wrinkled prunes. "I'm fine, Edward, I just lost track of time, I'll be right out."

"Mind if I come in?" he asked from the other side of the door.

Did she mind? Part of her did. She wasn't clothed, she wasn't even wrapped in a towel, but she had plans that would involve that eventually, so maybe her modesty wasn't the best reason to chicken out.

Another part of her wanted him to join her, to warm the water back up and touch her all over.

Well, she figured nothing like that would happen, Edward would probably just be looking to grab something or take her book from her before it distracted her further. "No, come on in," she said, pulling herself up to the edge of the tub to hide behind the porcelain.

He opened the door, stepping in and pausing, studying her for a moment. She flushed, but before she could say anything, he reached over and grabbed her book, setting it on the commode lid. "Come on, you, out of there. I have to shower before I can cook dinner."

"I am perfectly capable of getting out of a tub by myself, Edward," she protested, sitting back a bit.

He froze, then frowned. "Yes, I know, but I'm going to help you out this time, because the floor is slick and I don't want you hurt. Humor me."

She sighed heavily. "Oh, all right," she said. "You'd have me in a wheelchair for all the babying you do to me."

"Not true," he protested, crouching down and putting his arms under hers and slowly hauling her to her feet. "I'm babying you _today_ because I thought we had plans tonight."

She blushed hard, clinging to him, her body molded against his as she carefully stepped out of the tub with his assistance. "S-so we did," she managed to say, her voice hushed. She wanted her hip at its best for that.

She shivered in the cool air as he let go of her, grabbing a towel and wrapping it around her shoulders. He kissed her forehead. "There. I'll step out so you can dry up and dress, then I'm taking a shower so I can get started on dinner."

Riza nodded, watched him with adoration as he stepped out, then got to drying herself and pulling on her robe. She babied herself with every step, walking back down the hall to her room to change. "Bathroom's free, Edward!" she called down the stairs as she passed them.

"Thanks!" he called back up, a pot hitting the stove, then his heavy, mismatched footsteps heading to the stairs.

She retreated to her room, poking through her closet for something nicer to wear, something suitable for their romantic evening together. But her closet was pitifully empty of anything of the sort, just a bunch of summer dresses and jeans and long-sleeved turtlenecks for the cold months.

Damnit. All her few nice clothes were back East at her grandparents' home. She finally gave up and selected a blue sundress, one that came to her knees and clinched at the waist. It was one she hadn't worn around him yet, so at least there'd be the surprise factor, even if she thought she looked mediocre in it.

Sorely tempted to ask him to carry her downstairs to save her hip the trouble, she pushed that thought aside and walked down to the stairs, one hand firmly on the banister and the other on her cane. Despite her excessive worry, she made it down in one piece, and made her way into the kitchen.

Edward was still in the shower when she got to the kitchen, so she fed Hayate, putting him through his paces before putting his food on the floor for him. Edward came down a few minutes later, quick in the shower, dressed in jeans and a button up that she hadn't seen him wearing yet. He stopped, staring at her as he finished tucking in the back of his shirt, then smiled. "That's a good dress on you. Haven't seen it before."

She blushed. "Same with you. I thought all you had were t-shirts and tank tops."

He grinned, stepping over to the stove. "I always keep one good shirt on hand, in case I need it," he said. "Now, what do you want for dinner?"

Biting her lip, she gave him an apologetic look. "Oh, Edward, I think I'm too nervous to be hungry."

He scratched his cheek, turning a funny shade of red. "Well, uh." He smiled faintly, looking down at the ground. "We could always eat afterwards."

"What, and get redressed?" Riza said. "Come on, we'll make something simple." She started to get up, but he walked over and put a hand on her shoulder, making her sit back down.

"All right, all right, I'll make us something. Make up your mind, woman." He bent down and kissed her, a light kiss, then deeper, hungrier. She wrapped her arms around his neck, holding onto him as he stole her breath away. When he withdrew and rested his head against hers, his eyes were glassy. "Right, okay, we'll eat afterwards. Grab your cane."

She blinked, grabbing her cane, then gripped him tightly as he picked her up and gave her a heart attack. "Warning next time, Edward!"

He laughed, kissed her once, then headed for the stairs. "It's more fun this way," he said, as he took them up to her room.

***

It wasn't quite _hours_ later when they stopped for the night, but quite a bit of time _had_ passed. Riza's hip, despite their care and choice of positions to minimize impact on it, finally gave out for the night, and quite frankly, Ed was just as glad. Sure, he could've happily kept going, kept making her make those delicious noises and faces, could've lived forever in that feeling she gave him, but quite frankly, sex used muscles that even he didn't give much use to, and he was probably about as sore as Riza was.

He propped himself up on his flesh arm, automail fingers lightly tracing patterns on her abdomen as she lay prone next to him, nursing her hip. She gasped, breathed quickly, then gave him a dirty look. "That's hardly fair play, Edward. We're done for the night, remember?"

He grinned, leaned in and kissed her, then flopped his arm across her waist. "So we are." He nuzzled her neck, a spot wonderfully sensitive he discovered; he could almost get her off just by teasing the flesh there. But his action didn't hold any seduction, just a desire to cuddle and be as close as possible.

She made a pleased noise in the back of her throat, draping an arm over his automail arm, turning her head to rest it against his. "Still want to get up and eat?" she asked quietly.

He chuckled, kissed her neck, then propped himself back up on his elbow. "Not just yet." He kissed her. She smiled into the kiss, reaching up with her right arm and curling her fingers against his cheek.

He broke the kiss to kiss her fingertips, then looked down at her, holding her tightly against him. "I love you, Riza," he said quietly.

Her face lit up. "I love you too, Edward. I never thought it possible, but I do."

He tilted his head to one side. "What makes you say that? Sure, we're an unlikely pair and that reminds me, we have to fight later over who gets to tell Mustang, but what made it seem so impossible?"

She shook her head. "Not just you," she said. "And I get first dibs, I've known him longer. But, oh, I don't know. Romance was just something for books and other women, not for me. I didn't think it would ever happen to me, there was no room for it in my life, I thought. What about you?"

He shrugged. "I- yeah, I didn't think I'd find romance, either. Not really. Sure, plenty of girls I could date, even sleep with and probably some guys, too, and I tried it once, but sex by itself is no fun. I can satisfy myself just fine, you know? I don't need to involve someone else. But then you came along." He smiled.

She blinked, drawing back. "You tried it before? When was this?"

He looked away, turning a shade of red."Rush Valley. We were there on one of Winry's many trips to get Al to spoil her rotten. They were already together, so I was rooming alone. I don't even remember her name, started with a K, I think, but I was lonely, and bored, and figured hell, this is what normal men do, right? Didn't care for it much. It wasn't until you came along that I figured I'd ever touch another person like this. Glad you changed my mind for me."

She flushed happily. "So am I," she said, running her hand down his chest. Then she smiled. "So, about dinner?"

He snorted. "Sure, sate one appetite and now it's time to sate the other? Yeah, yeah, come on, get up." He kissed her, then got up off the bed, groping around the floor for his jeans. He pulled them on while Riza groaned, sitting upright. Without asking if it was needed, he walked to her side of the bed, picking up her clothes for her. "Here, let me help. I'm the one that wore out your hip."

She smiled. "Yes, you are, but I let you." She took her bra and folded it. "Will you put this in the top drawer of my dresser?" she asked, handing it over.

He took it, blinking, then looked back at the dresser. "What, you're not going to wear it?"

She shook her head. "I'm putting on my nightgown and hanging this dress up, I didn't exactly wear it long," she said.

"True," he said. "All right." He grabbed her dress from her, then put the bra away; he hung up the dress in her closet. "Do you need any help with anything?" he asked, looking back at her.

She was standing by dresser, cane propped against the lower drawers while she dug into another drawer, pulling out her nightgown. "Hm? No, I'm fine," she said, pulling the nightgown on over her head. She grabbed her cane and limped over to where he was putting on his shirt. "Shall we go get food?" she suggested with a smile, looping her arm around his.

He smiled, kissed her forehead, and walked to the stairs with her. "Feel up for climbing down, or did I ruin your hip?"

She scowled, tested one step and clearly regretted it, leaning heavily on him. "I don't think I can do it," she said, looking miserable.

He picked her up carefully, cradling her in his arms. "No shame in that," he told her. "What would you do if it were just you around?"

"Sit down and slide down one step at a time," she confessed, wrapping one arm around his neck, her other hand occupied with holding her cane.

"Oh, Riza, we gotta get you out of this house," he said. "You should be in a one-story."

She looked ashamed. "I know," she said. "I chose this because it wasn't, and it was cheap. I don't know where else to go."

"With me?" he said with a pleading smile. "We'll worry about where later. For now, you have me, you don't have to crawl up and down stairs."

She rested her head against his shoulder. "I don't regret this, by the way," she said, glancing up at him. "This was worth it."

He felt his face get warm as he got down off the stairs and carefully set her down on her feet. "I'm glad you think so, otherwise I'd feel really guilty."

"I know you would, Edward," she said. "Which is why I said something."

He kissed her. "You're too good a woman for me, Riza." He took her free hand as she grabbed her cane, and led her to the kitchen.

"Oh come now, Edward," she said incredulously.

"No, I mean it," he said, escorting her to her seat before going to the icebox to find food for dinner. "For all the women that would love a chance to be with me, you know damn well not a single one of them would be willing to put up with my idiosyncrasies the way you do."

She chuckled. "Well, you do have a lot of quirks, I'll admit that."

"Thanks for agreeing with me so quickly," he complained.

She stayed quiet while he cooked, which he asked about at one point while he assembled the chicken cordon bleu, and she replied that she was letting him focus on cooking the food instead of burning it like the other day.

He didn't know whether to thank her or grumble at her for that.

Ed had just put the chicken in the oven when the phone rang. He motioned at Riza to sit still, then walked over, pulled of a hot pad glove and picked up the phone. "Riza Hawkeye's residence, Ed speaking."

"Brother? What're you doing still there?"

Ed put his hand over the mouthpiece and looked at Riza. "It's my brother," he said, then uncovered the mouthpiece. "I'm fixing up her house," he answered.

"I thought you were there to fix her _well_ ," Al said. "Don't think I haven't noticed how long you've been gone."

"You have?" Ed leaned against the wall. "I thought you hadn't surfaced for air from Winry's-"

"Very funny, Brother," Al cut him off with an evil note of 'don't even' in his tone.

"Come on, Al, be fair," Ed said. "I was hardly seeing you because you two were in honeymoon mode. I didn't think you'd even notice I was gone."

There was a pause at the other end. "That hurts, Brother. Of course I notice you're gone. Just because I'm paying more attention to Winry right now doesn't mean I forgot about you."

"Okay, maybe that was a little unfair, but Al? I fixed her well a week ago. I almost am done with her roof and the whole thing needed redoing, plus a few other odds and ends. We still got shutters to fix, a patio to refloor and the whole place needs touch up painting."

"And you're planning on doing all this? Can't the general hire someone for her? Or can't she? Or her grandparents?"

"Why should they have to when I'm willing to do it?" Ed said. "You and Winry have some more vacation time from me, look at it that way."

Al sighed, breath crackling in the earpiece. "Brother, you could do all that with alchemy and be home in a week."

"I'm not doing it with alchemy. I'm making Teacher proud."

"You're being a stubborn jackass," Al snapped. "Winry and I have plenty attention to spare for you, we're done with the honeymoon stage, I promise. So come home already."

"I can't, Al," Ed said, glancing over at the oven. "She needs a lot of help around this place, and anyway, maybe it's my turn to be in the honeymoon stage."

"So get her to move-" Al cut himself off, and there was a long pause. Ed leaned against the wall with an amused grin on his face. Riza covered her mouth, smothering a giggle. "Wait, what? Brother, wha- okay, spell this one out for me, please, because I'm having trouble making the pieces fit in a sensical order."

Ed laughed. "Me, Riza, alone for how long now?"

"Brother, if you've done anything to-"

Ed pulled the earpiece away a bit. "Stop yelling at me, Al. Relax, it's nothing like that, it's a genuine relationship."

Al was quiet again for a moment. "Well, there's a pair I never saw coming," he admitted. "What about the general?"

"They were never more than friends, Al. And even if he felt anything, he waited too damn long and she's mine now, so there."

Riza let out a laugh at that, holding her sides as she laughed. Al, on the other hand, made a rude noise. "Brother, are you sure you're mature enough for an adult relationship?"

"I've heard you and Winry talking," Ed grumbled. "I'm no less mature than you two. Anyway, no, I don't know what's going on with me getting home. We're not sure what to do about the house, whether we'll stay here or move, and either way, the place needs to be fixed up before we can do either. So I'll be here longer. I'm almost done with the roof, then I'm going after that patio."

Al was quiet for a moment. "So it's going to be awhile before we see you."

"'Fraid so, Al. Just dive back into Winry's-"

"Brother, I will come out there and beat you."

Ed laughed, then laughed harder when Riza buried her face in her arms on the table, shoulder's shaking with laughter. "Anyway, you have a distraction, we'll let you know as soon as we decide what to do about the place. So don't worry so much."

"You're seriously thinking of moving out there?" Al didn't sound happy, but he was cautious about his disappointment. Ed could read his brother's tones easily.

"I don't know, Al," he said. "Maybe? That's not a decision we've made yet. But I'll see you again, it's not like you're losing me forever. Just for awhile longer. So chill. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have dinner to rescue."

"Dinner? It's a bit late for dinner, isn't it?"

Ed got a bratty grin. "I was diving over dinner hour. Now go on, go amuse your wife."

"Brother!"

Ed laughed, hanging up, then laughed even harder at Riza's evil look.

"You didn't have to tell him that!" she said.

He grinned. "Sure I did. He never let me finish saying what the diving was into earlier, so he doesn't know what I meant now." He stepped over and nibbled her neck. "Besides, I _was_ doing that."

She shuddered, then reached back with her cane and smacked his knees. "So? You don't need to tell your brother."

He laughed, moving out of caning range and over to the oven to check on the food. "Al and I don't keep secrets, Riza. We're not always so aggravatingly honest with each other, but we don't keep secrets. You'll have to get used to that."

She frowned, staring at the table, flushed red. "I. I'm not asking you to keep secrets from him, Edward," she said. "Just. Please respect _my_ privacy more than that? I don't mind if he knows you plan to be busy with me, or even that we were busy when he calls or something, but you don't have to get crude or detailed."

Ed pulled the food out and set it on the stove. "Sorry," he apologized. "I hadn't intended on that, I was just making a joke with Al. One in very poor taste, and I'm sorry."

Riza was quiet a moment, then shook her head with a wry grin. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, you're both ex-military and related to automail surgeons. Filthy mouths are to be expected, I guess."

He laughed despite looking shamefaced. "Well, yeah, there's that. Winry's just as bad as we are. And her grandma taught us all everything we know, for the most part. And I have yet to hear a soldier outdo her." He dished up the food while he talked, then took her plate to her. "But I'll try to curb it for your sake."

She shook her head. "No, Edward. That's not fair to you, not when I can be just as bad in the right mood."

He settled in his seat across from her. "I have never heard you swear."

"I can and do." She smiled. "You should've heard me when my water started going bad and I had to give in and call the general for help." 

"So you save it for when you're alone," he said. "That's not fair to us who just spew it whenever. It makes us look bad."

She snickered. "I'm sure you'll live. You'll hear me swear eventually, I can assure you of that." She took a bite of her food, closing her eyes.

He watched her carefully, hoping that reaction was a "oh god this food is delicious" reaction and not a "okay, how do I spit this out without him noticing?" reaction. "Good?"

She nodded vehemently, swallowing before speaking. "This is wonderful, Edward. Where's you learn to make this?"

"Breda," Ed said. "It's his favorite recipe and he was glad someone wanted to learn it. This is the first time I've made it, so I was nervous."

"Well, you did marvelously," she said, taking another bite. "So you're going to work on the front porch next, I heard you say to your brother?"

He nodded. "Yeah, that way, we can start enjoying it, now that the evenings are getting longer and warmer. We can use that swing of yours."

She smiled. "That swing needs new chains, they're rusty and old."

"Well, _those_ are easy enough to get," he said. "I'll just stop at the hardware store."

"Are you planning on using alchemy on the patio?" she asked. "I haven't had much chance to see you show it off this visit."

He looked up from a bite, then blinked. "You haven't? Huh, I'll be damned, you haven't. Okay. I'll get some new wood and transmute it into restrengthen the old. Then we'll replace those rusty old chains and start enjoying evenings on the porch before it gets too hot and the mosquitos come out."

"So another trip to town?" she said with a smile.

He nodded. "Tomorrow? I can finish up the roof in the morning, it's almost done, then we can head into town after I get a shower."

She smiled suggestively. "It's too bad you've nixed sharing a shower, I could take care of that back of yours tomorrow."

Ed felt his face grow hot. "We'd never make it to town, Riza."

"And what a shame that would be," she said, watching him.

His face felt like it was on fire. "Riza. Behave. We have all the time in the world out here, let's make this place suitable for living before we start breaking it in."

She looked down at her food. "I see."

Lord, handling her could be like handling a time bomb sometimes, even now. "Riza, I didn't mean we had to stop until I'm done." She looked up at him, looking cautiously hopeful. "I meant let's not find new ways to break the place in until I'm done repairing it. The bedroom and bed are fine for now. We'll break in the kitchen table and counters and tub and anywhere else you want after the repairs are done."

She blinked in wide-eyed shock. "Edward, I don't think my hip could handle all that. I didn't mean-"

He grinned. "I know. I was just saying. Don't break _me_ until I'm done around here."

"O-oh." She looked a bit flustered. "I- I never intended on breaking you, I think we'd break me and my hip long before we bothered you."

"Probably, but you know what I meant. No distracting me from work until work's done. Then we can run around the house naked and do whatever, if you want."

"All right," she said, then smiled. "Too bad, though, that shower idea sounds fun."

He pointed his fork at her. "You have permission to assault me _after_ I'm done with repairs."

She laughed. "All right, I'll be good." She finished off her food, then yawned. "I think your food is putting me to sleep," she said.

He laughed, then wolfed down the last of his food. "Food coma, best kind of sleep. Come on, let's clean up then go to bed. I think we've tired out your hip enough for one night."

She grabbed her cane and picked up her plate in her free hand, limping over to the sink with him. "I agree." She took up her usual place at the sink while he grabbed a clean towel to dry with.


	5. Never Been Another Summer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes, Mother Nature makes the decision for you.

_And then I watched her hands of leather,_   
_Turn to velvet in a touch._   
_There's never been another summer,_   
_When I have ever learned so much._   
-Garth Brooks

Winter had finally given up its hold, leaving them in a pleasant spring, full warm sunny days with cool breezes, punctuated occasionally by thunderstorms as the fading winter air did a violent dance with summer's advances.

"Is it always like this this time of year?" Edward asked as the wind howled outside.

Riza glanced out the window at the rain pouring in waves down the pane as a flash of lightning nearly blinded her. Thunder followed seconds later. "Every spring. Some worse than others. This has been a quiet spring so far."

"The rainy season sometimes brought storms like this to Rizenbul," Edward said, holding her tightly as they lay in bed, listening to the nighttime storm. "But mostly it just rained."

Riza smiled. "Yes, the East does get thunderstorms sometimes. But the West gets worse. We're plains territory out here, not desert. Wait until summer, you'll regret living here. It gets so _humid_."

"That does it, we're moving you back East," Edward said. "The weather will be kinder to your hip."

She frowned. "Edward, we said we would discuss this later. You just finished the repairs, let's enjoy the house for awhile, first."

"We should probably discuss this tomorrow, after we've had sleep," he said, kissing her neck.

She made a happy noise in the back of her throat at the contact. "After we sleep," she agreed.

Edward kissed her one more time, then settled in for sleep. She stayed awake a bit longer, listening to the sounds of the storm as Edward's breath finally evened off into sleep. About ten minutes later, she drifted off with him.

When she woke, the bed was empty. She blinked, feeling cold at her back. The sky was still pink through her window; the sun hadn't even finished coming up yet. She sat up, ignoring the pain in her hip. "Edward?" No answer. Could he have already gotten up? Or was he just using the commode?

She put her feet into her slippers and grabbed her robe from her wardrobe, wrapping herself in it and hobbling down the stairs to find him. "Edward?"

"Out here, Riza!" his voice came from the front porch. The smell of coffee drifted in from the kitchen. Wondering why he was up so early- could he not sleep? did she wake him somehow? -she followed his voice to the patio.

He looked up at her from the swing as she stepped out, a cup of coffee in one hand. "Mornin'. Did I wake you getting up? I didn't mean to."

She shook her head. "No, you didn't. I'm more worried that I woke you somehow. This is rather early."

He shrugged, taking a sip of his coffee before answering. "Nope, just woke up and couldn't get back to sleep. Come on, come sit by me." He patted the empty space on the swing next to him.

She smiled and limped over, propping her cane against the wall of the house before sitting down next to him. He slipped his free arm around her shoulders; she leaned her head against him, smiling faintly. "It's a bit chilly out here," she commented idly. "I'm glad I have my robe."

"Yeah, but it'll warm up," Edward said, looking off into the distance. She smiled, snuggling up under his arm and letting her eyes close and her mind drift off.

After a few minutes in which she wasn't sure if she'd actually fallen asleep or not, he tensed, waking her up to an adrenaline-fueled alertness. "What is it?" she asked quietly, looking around.

"Were we expecting guests today?" he asked

"No." She followed his gaze out to the road, where distantly, she could see two figures approaching. She got up and walked back inside, grabbing a shotgun out of the front closet before returning outside. She held the shotgun down, ready but not aimed.

He looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "Always prepared for the worst?"

She smiled grimly. "It's my job as a bodyguard. I'm afraid even if I never go back to that work, you're going to have to deal with my instincts."

"That's fine," he said, setting his coffee down on the railing surrounding the porch and walked down the steps, watching with crossed arms as Riza stood to his side and behind him up on the patio.

The two figures walked slowly into view, finally proving to be a blonde and someone with slightly darker hair. Edward lowered his arms, then took off at a run. Riza frowned, watching the figures as Edward ran towards them, then abruptly realized that was Alphonse and Winry approaching. She went back inside and put the gun away and then stepped back outside, watching as Alphonse tackled Edward into a hug that ended with both Elrics on the ground.

Riza smiled faintly as Winry helped them up and Edward walked back between them, his arms flung around their shoulders. "Riza! We have breakfast guests!"

"So I see," she said. "Please excuse my state of dress."

The siblings and Winry walked up the porch. "It's okay, Riza," Winry told her, readjusting her bag and the long suitcase in her grip. "We'll ignore it if you give us a place to set all this down. I brought tools to work on Ed's automail, and they're heavy."

"Of course," Riza said. She grabbed Edward's coffee cup for him and went back inside, leading the three Elrics inside. "Edward, would you show them to your old room?"

"Yeah," Edward said. "Come on, bedrooms are upstairs."

Riza pretended to not see the look Alphonse shot her at that, that sort of Elric look she recognized that said 'you're not taking care of yourself to my satisfaction.' Well for heaven's sake, of course she climbed stairs to get to bed! What was she supposed to do, sleep on the couch in the living room? The bedrooms were upstairs. Yes, she'd bought this home with that in mind, but even if she hadn't, it was how the house was arranged.

Elrics.

She set Edward's mug down on the kitchen table, then headed back for the stairs. She could hear the Elrics talking upstairs as she climbed the steps, heading for her own room to get dressed, since it was obvious they weren't going back to bed for the day. Damn. Her privacy had just been invaded further, and it didn't feel like she'd had enough time alone with Edward for her liking before people reentered her life.

In retrospect, she shouldn't be surprised by their appearance. Not after the phone call a couple weeks ago. The Elric brothers didn't like being separated for long; Alphonse and Winry probably packed right after Alphonse and Edward hung up.

She dressed in Edward's favorite red dress, braided her hair, then headed back downstairs, following the sounds of voices to the kitchen. Edward looked over at her when she entered and brightened. He walked over to her and kissed her forehead. "Hey, you." Then he put his arm around her shoulders, and Riza felt herself flush, a bit embarrassed by the public display of affection, even if 'public' was relative, quite literally, in this case.

Alphonse shook his head. "I still can't say I saw this one coming," he said.

Winry grinned. "They're cute, aren't they, Al? Ed finally realized he had hormones."

Edward scowled at her. "Shut your mouth. I just hadn't met anyone before, that's all."

Riza looked skyward, wondering what sort of family she'd gotten involved with. An Elric family, that's what kind. Although she noticed that apparently, Alphonse and Winry didn't know about Edward's little tryst in Rush Valley. Riza was surprised by that. Edward had said they didn't keep secrets. Obviously, either they did, or Edward had spaced it. Which didn't seem likely.

Alphonse sighed. "Sit down, I'll make breakfast. Miss Riza gets a break today."

Before she could do more than blink, Edward had walked over to his brother and smacked him upside the head. "Whaddya mean she gets a break? I've been doing all the cooking!"

Alphonse stopped and stared at him. "You? But you can't cook."

"I can too," Edward said. "Now go sit, get away from my stove."

Alphonse looked at his brother dubiously, then over at Riza. She blinked, not sure why she was being looked at, until it occurred to her a second later. "It's true, Alphonse, he's been doing the cooking. He's good at it, and I'm not."

Alphonse eyed his brother. "Since when can you cook?" he asked, sitting down at the table across from Riza. Winry took a seat between them.

"Since a long time ago, but you never let me cook for the family," he said. "What, did you think I was just eating sandwiches when you and Winry were out? I cooked for myself. You just never knew because I actually cleaned up after myself."

"You clean up after yourself too?" Alphonse looked shocked.

Edward threw a towel at his head. "Brat," he said as he got around the breakfast dishes and raided the ice box for some pork and eggs and a few other odds and ends. It looked like he was making pancakes, eggs and sausage patties that day. Good, Riza liked his pancakes.

"So how long do you two intend to stay?" Riza asked as Edward got to work on breakfast.

Alphonse turned away from his brother's work to face her. "We're not sure, I guess as long as you can stand us, since it sounds like you two might be staying out here. Seeing each other is going to be hard with two of us on one side of the country and the other two on the other. I'd like some time with my brother. But if we can convince you to move back home with us, we won't turn that down, either. If you haven't decided yet, like it sounded like a couple weeks ago, that's fine, we won't pressure you either way. Or at least, we'll try not to."

Riza looked around the kitchen idly. "I admit I'm getting attached to this place now that Edward's fixed it up. But no, we haven't decided yet."

Winry smiled. "It's easy to get attached to a place that a lot of love has gone into," she said. "So I definitely wouldn't blame you if you wanted to stay. We'll miss Ed, and we'd miss out on a chance of having a sister-in-law nearby, since I kinda assume with the way Ed is that we'll be related eventually, but I get better business out East than I would here, I think. There may be farming accidents that happen time to time, but most farmers are too poor to afford automail services, even if I dropped my prices to the minimum I could get away with to cover expenses."

"You know I could make up for that loss with my state alchemist income," Edward said from the stove, flipping a pancake.

"I know," Winry said, "but I'd like to help with the financial situation, and Al would have to find new work. Besides, all our friends are out East."

"It wouldn't be hard for me to find work out here," Al pointed out. "I've worked with Fletcher and Russell enough that I know plants pretty well, I could help out in the fields easily enough. But you're right, your business would suffer."

Riza pursed her lips, feeling guilty that her new family was already trying to rearrange their lives for her, when, if she were honest, she ought to be going back East anyway, to a home more suited for her handicap. But she loved this old house, loved the life she and Edward had made in it so far, she didn't want to give it up.

"I can probably get Mustang to reassign me out here," Edward said, glancing back over his shoulder at his family. "So far, he's been happy to pay the bills for us while I fix the place up, because it's helping Riza, but he'll wonder eventually. Riza called dibs on telling him."

"You're right, I did," she said. "I've known him longer and he's given me more headaches, despite what you might think. I get to throw him a curveball for once."

"He caused you _more_ headaches than he did Brother?" Alphonse looked incredulous, then entirely too sympathetic. "I am so, so sorry, Riza. I didn't think such a thing was possible, with as much as Brother griped about him."

She smiled faintly. "Your brother likes to exaggerate," she said.

"I do not," Edward said, dishing up plates and taking them to the table. "God, I make breakfast for you people and I get abuse in return. I see how it is."

Riza laughed quietly. "Oh, Edward, you know it's true. If you didn't exaggerate so much, the general wouldn't pick on you half as much as he does."

Edward dumped the cooking pans in the sink before taking his seat between his brother and Riza. "So you've said. I still have to find those people and thank them for teaching him how to be a grade A jackass."

"Who?" Alphonse asked, still poking warily at his pancakes.

"Never mind," Edward said, digging into his sausage. "Some people Mustang knew at one time that I'm bound by promise into secrecy."

Alphonse made a face at his brother. "Sure, just keep things from me, and how long were you going to wait to tell me you and Riza had gotten together if I hadn't called?"

"It would've occurred to me eventually," Edward said with a shrug.

Alphonse was aghast at his brother. "Eventually? You'd forget to tell me, your only brother, your precious, wonderful, adoring little brother, that you'd found someone to love and share your life with?"

Edward made a face. "When you put it that way, I sound kinda horrible, Al. And what's this about you being a precious, wonderful and adoring little brother? You're a brat, that's what you are."

"I am that, but I'm those other things too," Alphonse argued. "Winry and I told you right away."

"Yeah, but I wasn't surprised by that," Edward said. "You two had been beating around that little bush for awhile."

Riza kept her thoughts on that little matter private, or rather, her thoughts on his wording. She'd been military too long to ever hear that phrase without her mind heading straight for the gutter. The same applied to the 'a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.' She wasn't even sure that one had any other meanings beyond the perverted one. If it did, she didn't know them.

"Maybe," Alphonse said after taking a bite. "And okay, I concede, you can cook. This is really good."

"Thank you," Edward said. "I learned from Breda, and I've had lots of practice out here." He gave Riza a teasing grin. "Riza's not much of a cook. She makes soup, oatmeal and tea."

She looked indignant. "You forgot toast, you heathen."

He laughed. "How could I ever forget that?" he said. "But no, honestly, she doesn't cook much. She's eaten better since I got here."

She frowned. "I'm also going to gain weight if you don't be careful."

Winry looked over at her. "I can come up with some exercises you can do with your hip to keep weight down and improve mobility," she said.

Edward grinned. "Told you."

Riza gave Edward a sour look, then smiled at Winry. "That would be appreciated, Winry. Edward's been babying me since he got here, so I'm afraid I haven't been doing much but some housework and eating his cooking."

Winry glanced at Edward, then over at Riza. "Lemme guess, he's practically tied you to chairs to keep you from getting up?"

Riza shook her head. "Not quite that bad. Probably because he doesn't ever know if I have a gun on me at any given time." She shot her lover a sweet smile. "But he's fussed a bit, yes."

Edward chewed silently, pointing his fork at her. "Try to train me the way you trained Hayate, and there will be _words_ , lady."

She gave him a bland look. "It certainly taught him not to pee on the carpets, dear, are you sure it wouldn't be as effective for you?"

Alphonse choked on his food, while Winry just laughed outright. "He's more likely to pee on your skirts than your carpets, Riza," she said.

Edward looked at her, slack-jawed and terribly offended. "I would not, what does that even mean?"

"You're territorial, Brother," Alphonse said after coughing a couple times. "You practically scented the place when we moved into the house we live in now."

Edward stabbed a pancake. "I did not and I am not," he protested. At the looks all three of them gave him, he frowned. "I'm not! Not that bad, anyway!"

"Yes, dear, of course dear," Riza said.

"Do you infuriate Mustang like that?"

"Yes." She smiled at him.

"It's very annoying. Keep it up."

That made her laugh. "Oh, Edward, I will never stop trying to annoy the general. He deserves every headache I can give him, for all the headaches he gave all of us in that office, including you."

"Damn right he does," Edward grumbled.

Riza looked down at her half-finished plate. He'd made too much, as usual. She took some sausage and gave it to Hayate, after putting him through his paces, then placed her plate next to Edward's. "Good as usual, but you made too much again."

Edward frowned at her plate. "Damnit, I will learn someday."

She grinned and kissed his cheek. "I think you're just used to cooking for a very big appetite, dear."

He turned his head to catch her lips with that kiss. "Don't push yourself cleaning those pans," he told her.

"I won't, Edward," she assured him, propping her cane against the kitchen counter as she started in on the dishes.

Winry and Alphonse quickly added their empty plates to her pile, and shortly thereafter, Edward added the two plates he had. He kissed her cheek. "Want me to dry?"

"I'll do it, Brother," Alphonse said. "You should let Winry look at your automail, you probably have lapsed in its care again, like you usually do when you don't have one of us to remind you."

Edward managed to look horribly offended and horribly guilty at once. "All right, all right," he said, giving Winry a worried look. "You're not going to wrench me, are you?"

"That depends on how bad your automail is," she said brightly. "I'll go get my tools, go sit down somewhere comfortable."

Alphonse picked up a towel and stood ready next to Riza while Edward and Winry disappeared into the other room. Alphonse gave her a scrutinizing look that made her feel uncomfortable. She finally looked at him after handing him a clean frying pan. "Thank you for doing this, Alphonse," she said. "That goes on that wall hook there."

He looked over where she indiciated, the nodded. "All right." 

They worked in silence for a minute, then Alphonse spoke up again. "So you and my brother, huh? I said it before, I'll say it again, I didn't see that one coming."

She didn't look at him, keeping herself focused on her work. He was giving her a mandatory family grilling that Roy would probably inevitably _try_ to give to Edward, and her grandfather _would_ because Edward would let him at least get away with it. "Neither did we, Alphonse," she said, handing over a plate.

"Are you happy?" he asked, taking the plate and drying it slowly, not taking his eyes off her.

She kept him in her peripheral vision, but kept herself otherwise looking at the dishes. "We both are, yes."

Alphonse set the plate and towel down, turning to her and leaning against the counter. "You don't need to be so tight-lipped," he said. "I know my brother, you two are going to be married sooner or later, that makes us family. In this family, we don't stonewall each other."

She sighed and looked at him finally. "Alphonse, I know what you're doing, you're doing a very subtle attempt at the 'you make her cry, I make you cry' speech that Roy will _try_ to give to Edward and my grandfather _will_ give to him. I will not hurt Edward. And if that means leaving this house and moving back East so he can be with you and Winry, then I will do it. But we have not decided because we both have put a lot of love and time into this house and we're attached to it. Give us time, please."

Alphonse blinked a few times. "Oh, Riza, I wasn't even talking about that," he said. "Well, yes, I was, I wanted to make sure you both made each other happy. I know you're not the sort to love and leave, and neither is my brother. And I wasn't even talking about you two leaving here. If you want to stay, we'll either just have to visit, or we'll move out here, one of the two. It's entirely up to you, don't worry about Winry and I in it. We'll adapt around your choices."

Riza's eyes felt wet. "You should not have to," she said quietly. "I'm lucky to have Edward, and he's lucky to have you. Neither you nor he should have to rearrange your lives for me."

He put a hand gently on her shoulder. "Riza, listen to me. You've known us since Brother was twelve. When, in all that time, have you ever known us to do anything but go above and beyond for our loved ones?"

Since he was twelve. She felt ancient all of a sudden. "Alphonse, you make me feel like a cradle robber," she said, half grumbling. "Your brother's already tried to pound into my head that a nine year difference isn't so bad."

Alphonse sighed deeply. "Riza? I didn't mean that, either. No, nine years is not a bad difference. You're twisting my words."

"I'm good at that," she said with a weak chuckle. "I do it to drive Roy crazy. I'm sorry, Alphonse, I know you're just making sure we're all happy, and other than the decision of where to live, we are."

He smiled, lighting up his whole face. "Good," he said, drying another dish and setting it aside. "I wouldn't want anything less for you two. And like I said, don't feel guilty for whatever you decide on the living arrangement."

She handed him another dish with a faint smile. "Those go in that cupboard there," she instructed. He put the dishes away, then motioned for her to follow as soon as the dirty sink water was drained. She followed him out to the living room, where Edward was stripped down to his boxers and Winry was crouched on the floor in front of him, fiddling with his automail leg. Alphonse joined them, sitting on Edward's right side and examining the port.

Edward looked at him. "So tell me, Doctors Elric-Rockbell, what's the verdict? Do I get wrenched or do I escape punishment this time?"

"Well, your ankle's a bit loose," Winry said. "But Al says something about you fixing a roof, and that's a tough on ankle joints. Lotta weight on it. But you've kept the port and leg clean, the rest of it looks good. What say you, Al?"

Alphonse lifted Edward's arm, poking around at the delicate wiring in the underarm. "Well, it's a little dirty, but not too bad, given all the mud he's been mucking about in with that well. I think he gets to live."

Edward grinned. "Damn right," he said. "So what can you do about the ankle?" he asked his sister-in-law.

She opened her suitcase and pulled out what looked like a cheap, plastic leg. "You get to wear a loaner while I work on it," she said.

Edward groaned. "I hate those things, Winry."

"Maybe," Winry replied, pulling out another tool Riza didn't recognize and detaching Edward's automail leg. "But you can't hold still long enough for me to work on the ankle while you're wearing your leg, so a loaner it is."

Edward sighed. "All right." He sat still while Winry hooked up the loaner, wincing at the connection of nerves, which was, to Riza's knowledge, nothing like having a regular limb hooked up. He stood up, testing the leg. "It'll do," he said, then grabbed his pants and pulled them back on.

Shame. He looked good like that.

Alphonse went through the routine of cleaning Edward's arm port while Winry took the leg to the coffee table and sat down on the floor. Riza glanced back into the dining room behind her, where a table that was largely unused sat. "Winry," she said, looking back at her, "if you want a better work station, there's a table in the dining room that never gets used. We use the kitchen table more often."

Winry looked up, then stood. "You're sure?"

"I'm sure," Riza told her, nodding once. "It'll probably be more comfortable than the floor, with more room than that table."

Winry packed up her parts and tools in the suitcase the spare leg had been in, then hefted Edward's regular leg up onto her shoulder and headed over to Riza, glancing past her shoulder. "This room?" she confirmed, motioning with Edward's leg.

Riza was morbidly amused at that. "Yes, that's the room. Just don't fling my boyfriend's leg around, please."

Winry stopped and looked at her, blinking, then laughed. "Oh don't worry, this leg is my masterpiece, I treat it better than he does."

Riza smiled. "He is rather rough on himself," she admitted. "The dining room is yours, like I said, we tend to eat in the kitchen. I don't think I've been in that room except to dust, honestly."

"Extra rooms to clean?" Winry said, raising an eyebrow as she set her toolbox and Edward's leg on the table.

Riza shrugged. "Not by choice. The house was built for a family, not just one person. But I liked the location."

"And Ed's been round and round with you on your choices, I'll bet," Winry said, opening her toolbox and starting to work.

Riza rolled her eyes, leaning against the door frame to take weight off her bad hip. "And round, and sideways and up and down. He's intent on babying me."

Winry smiled without looking up from her work. "That's Ed for you," she said, popping off some metal casing from around the ankle workings. "He babied Al a bit at first after Al got his body back. Al was so weak and malnourished. It just pushed Al into getting better faster so he could kick Ed's ass for being a pill."

Riza laughed. "Sadly, I can't do that. I've threatened to train him the way I did Hayate, but that usually ends with a stern look and a promise to tie me up and take away my guns."

Winry paused in her work and looked over at her. Then she burst into laughter. "Careful, he might actually do it someday," she said, going back to work. "Oh damnit, Edward Joseph Elric, how did you get mud in there?" She started scraping out caked-on mud from inside the joint. "That explains why it felt so off." She sighed. "That boy."

"That probably happened when he was working on the well," Riza said. "He was digging down quite far."

Winry looked up at her. "I take it he fixed it if he's gone on to fix everything else around here?"

Riza nodded once. "Yes, he did. It was such a relief to have real, clean drinking water and water to bathe in."

"I'll bet," Winry said. "Speaking of water, can I have some to clean this out?"

"Hm? Oh, of course." Riza straightened. "A bowl, a pot, what would be best?"

"A pot, probably," Winry said, "And a washrag you don't mind getting dirty."

"All right." Riza walked out into the kitchen, first filling a pot with water, then hunting through her towel drawer for a washrag she wasn't attached to. Upon finding one, which wasn't hard as they were all rough and worn, she returned to the dining room. "Here," she said, setting the pot down next to Winry on the table. "Does this work?"

"Perfect," Winry said, grabbing the rag and dipping it in the water, and going to work on the ankle. "This is boring work, so you can go join Ed and Al. I won't be hurt."

Riza nodded. "Call if you need anything, Winry," she said, then headed back to the living room where Edward was sitting on the floor, his right arm raised while Alphonse took a rag to the wires in the underarm, cleaning off the soft leather that protected them.

"You need to pay better attention to cleaning your automail, Brother," Alphonse told him.

Edward sighed. "Yeah, I know, I try to get it all, but..."

Alphonse pulled back and looked at him. "Use your alchemy," he suggested. "You love any excuse to use it, and it'll help keep your ports clean. Your limbs will function better, and you'll make Winry happy. Win win."

"I keep thinking to," Edward said, "but I forget."

"You and your memory," Alphonse said, shaking his head. "You'd forget your head if it wasn't screwed on."

Riza smothered a smirk. "He's shown that tendency plenty of times here. How he manages to not burn meals because he forgot something is beyond me."

Edward looked over at her, frowning. "I put the same effort into cooking that I put into my alchemy," he said. "That's how."

"Now if we could just get you to treat your automail that well," Alphonse said. "Okay, I'm done."

"I treat my automail like the rest of me," Edward said with a shrug of his left shoulder, dropping his right arm into his lap.

"Yeah, badly," Alphonse said.

"And yet he harasses everyone else to take care of themselves," Riza said, giving Edward a scolding look.

He ducked his head. "I know, but I just get concerned. And this is nothing like you taking care of that hip. I get regular enough treatment for my arm and leg that a little dirt doesn't stop me. Start on those exercises Winry gives you and I'll back off a bit."

She raised an eyebrow quite high. "Is that a promise?"

"No." He gave her a stern look. "I know you, Riza, even with those exercises, you push yourself too hard."

She huffed. "Very well."

Alphonse laughed. "Forget it, Riza, he's going to fuss until the day you die. He's bad that way. He still fusses over me and I haven't been in bad condition for years."

Edward looked insulted. "I do not either."

The look Alphonse gave him screamed incredulousness. "Brother? Please. You fuss."

Edward sputtered a bit, then finally crossed his arms petulantly. "I'm your older brother, that's my _job_."

Alphonse laughed, kissed his brother on the cheek, then stood up. "I'm going to go settle us in while Winry works on your leg. We'll try to stay out of you guys's way."

"Don't worry about it, Alphonse," Riza told him. "I don't mind having guests."

He smiled at her. "Thanks. We'll try to give you two your privacy." He glanced back at Edward. "And you, start taking care of your automail, or I won't stand in the way when Winry flings her wrenches at you."

"You never do anyway!" Edward protested as his brother left the room. He frowned a grouchy sort of expression, then smiled as he looked at Riza. "Sorry about my family, they're nuts. I didn't expect them to show up."

Riza shook her head. "It's all right, Edward. I knew that I was getting them as part of a package deal with you."

He stood, walking over to her and pulling her into a tight hug, nuzzling her neck. "I love you," he whispered, then pulled back and rested his forehead against hers.

She smiled, closing her eyes. "I love you too, Edward," she said. Then she lifted her forehead. "I should start on housework."

"We'll guilt it onto Al today," he said. "Today, we're taking a day to just enjoy. Come on, we'll get you more tea, I'll get some more coffee, we'll sit outside on the swing and let my siblings do all the work."

Riza frowned. "I can't possibly expect guests to do housework, Edward."

"They're not guests, they're family," Edward said. "Come on, let's go sit on the swing and let them deal with shit for awhile."

She wanted to protest. She liked dealing with the day to day work! It made her feel useful. But on the other hand, he made a tempting offer. A day off to just spend with him however she pleased, pretty much, without them going their separate ways to tend to duties. The house repairs were done, Alphonse would do the cleaning while Winry worked on Edward's leg. That left her and Edward all the time in the world to spend together. At least for a day.

"Oh, all right," she finally conceded, her desire to just be with Edward for awhile winning against her practical side.

He took her hand, leading her to the kitchen with a stop at the stairs to call up to his brother that Alphonse had housework duties for the day, then let go long enough to set up the kettle for her and the percolator to make another pot. "So. We have the day to ourselves. What should we do with it while still being subtle enough that you don't erupt into flames from embarrassment?"

She flushed hot. "Edward," she scolded quietly. "We most certainly will stay subtle, thank you. We'll sit out on the patio to start with. I'll decide what to do after that."

His eyebrows raised. "You'll decide?"

"Yes, because you may have revenge on your mind when it comes to your brother and sister-in-law, and there'll be none of that," she said primly.

He laughed. "None at all? Not even that shower idea you had?"

She stared at him. "I'd forgotten about that. You're tempting me." She frowned. "But your brother and Winry are right there, they'll know."

Edward put on a long-suffering look. "If I had to count all the times I knew they were up to that sort of thing, I think I'd be using scientific notation."

Her eyebrows shot up towards her hairline. "That's impressive."

"Yeah. So whaddya say? Swing first, then shower?"

Realizing that likely they'd likely end up living with Alphonse and Winry one way or another, so hoarding her privacy like a dragon hoarded gold was probably pointless, she surrendered herself to the idea that if they took a shower together, the Elric-Rockbell couple would know what's going on, and probably not give a whit.

In fact, they may take a hint and do it themselves at some point, if they hadn't already back East.

She sighed. "Well, it's not like they're ignorant to the workings of a relationship, so why not? I never did get a chance to try that, I'd like to."

"Don't act like it's a chore," he said with a laugh. He poured himself a fresh cup of coffee as the percolator finished, then rescued her kettle and poured her water and dropped in the tea ball. "Here you are." He handed her cup to her. 

She took the cup with a quiet 'thank you', turning to head back to the front patio. "It's not that, Edward," she said. "It's just. Oh, you know how much I value my privacy."

"I know," he said, walking with her. "And depending on what living arrangements we end up, we'll have that back. Or we won't. But for now, they're here, and they've planted their butts, so we may as well get used to them being around for the moment, you know?"

She leaned her head against his shoulder briefly, then smiled at him. "All right," she said, walking out to the patio with him.

***

Winry looked out the kitchen window while Ed and Riza served up lunch. "It's really coming down," she said. "Is it always like this around here?"

Ed looked at her. "Sometimes," he said. "This is a little worse than the storm we had the day before you arrived." He walked over to the window and looked out. "Hail," he said. "Yo, Riza, we got hail."

Riza set Al's plate in front of him. "I'm glad the animals are all inside. How big is the hail?"

"Pretty big," Ed said, watching next to Winry. "I'd say the size of a five cen coin."

Al looked wide eyed at Riza. "And you live out here?"

She smiled. "Lots of people live out here, Alphonse. You learn to live with mother nature's little temper tantrums."

"This seems like a little more than a temper tantrum," Winry said, watching the hail come down with Ed. "This seems more like she's having a fight with God over who's the meanest bitch around."

Ed laughed. "Winry, really? There's no such thing as a god of any sort. It's just a hail storm, it'll be over soon."

Winry shot him a look. "You have no imagination," she said. "Of course there's no god. Just enjoy the imagery."

"You crazy fiction readers," Ed said with another laugh, then went back to the table.

Winry looked back at them, cast one more look outside, then joined the others. "So what do we do today, since chores and painting the house is out of the question?"

"We annoy each other," Ed said with a smartass grin as he started in on his sandwich. 

Riza rolled her eyes. "Please don't, Edward, you can be quite irritating when you want to be."

He stopped midchew to stare at her, insulted, then slowly finished chewing to come up with a retort. " _You_ were nothing but a pain in the ass when I first got here," he said. "I had to constantly ride herd on you to stop interrupting my work because you were pushing yourself too hard."

She pursed her lips. "Nobody said you had to stop working to come harass me," she said.

Ed just gave her a look. "And if I hadn't, we wouldn't be here right now. We Elrics would be back East and you'd still be lonely out here, hurting yourself. So don't act like you're all that annoyed with me for it."

Riza sighed. "You're right, I know you're right, and I am very grateful for your stubbornness, but you are still thoroughly irritating with it."

"Well, that I won't deny," he admitted. Then he paused, frowning and turning to the window as a noise that had started distant came closer. "Is that a train? I've never heard the trains this far out."

Riza froze, her sandwich halfway to her mouth. "It... does sound like a train," she said, paling.

Ed looked at her. "That's bad, isn't it?"

"That's a tornado," Riza said, quickly standing and grabbing her cane.

"A tornado?!" Winry exclaimed, dropping her sandwich and jumping to her feet.

Al joined her. "Brother, where's the cellar?"

"Outside," Ed said, swearing. "Someone grab Hayate. Riza, screw your dignity, I'm carrying you, you can't run fast enough." She didn't give him any protests when he went over to her, picking her up and cradling her in his arms as Winry grabbed the dog. Al ran over to the back door and held it open against the wind, motioning for the family to follow. And quickly, the door looked ready to fly off its hinges.

Winry clung to Hayate as she ran out. "Which way?" she shouted over the wind.

Ed nearly dropped Riza when he caught sight of the funnel about a mile out and impossible to tell which direction it was heading. Fuck. "To the right, over there at the corner of the house," he yelled back.

Hayate howled and squirmed in Winry's grip, she yelped and struggled to keep a grip on him. "Al! Get that door open before he jumps!"

Al strained against the cellar door, finally managing to pry one free just as Ed was ready to set Riza down and help. "Get in!"

Ed let Winry go first so she could drop Hayate before he got out of her grip and ran off for parts unknown, then followed her down, careful of his footing with Riza in his arms. Once they were down, he set her down and turned to help Al get the door shut and latched.

The wind nearly won that battle, nearly tore the doors clean off, but once it was latched and rattling precariously, the boys backed up, herding their women and the dog into the corner. The noise outside grew louder and the cellar doors rattled more.

They sank to the ground, Al and Ed stretching their arms around the women to try to block them even as the deafening roar of the wind exploded wood above them. The entire ground rumbled as wood splintered and shattered somewhere over their heads.

Winry cried while Riza sat with fear on her face, clutching her dog to her tightly. Al's eyes were clenched shut and Ed glanced away from them to stare out at the rattling cellar doors as what little light came in went dark. He was helpless to protect his family; if that wind wanted to fuck with them, it'd fuck with them and he couldn't do anything to stop it.

After what seemed like eternity, but was probably only about thirty seconds, the noise grew distant and the sound of wood breaking stopped over their heads. Nobody moved until that thundering wind had gone completely several minutes later.

Ed moved first, slowly getting to his feet, motioning to Al to keep the girls down until he'd checked out the situation. He climbed the stairs, unlatching the door and pushing against it. One wouldn't move, but the other reluctantly gave, swinging open. He poked his head out, looking around. The entire place was trashed, wood and the wheels from Riza's cart scattered about the yard.

But what really caught his attention was the fact that the house seemed to have turned on its foundation.

He frowned, stepping out and backing up in the yard, mindful of debris, as he looked at the house. "Uh. Well, it's uh. Safe to come out," he called down the cellar. "But Riza? I think our house might be a lost cause now."

Al led the women out, looking up at the house. "Oh wow," he said. "I didn't think that kind of thing was possible."

Riza limped up last, looking up at her house. "Oh no."

The whole house had been rotated on its foundation by about fifteen degrees. Windows were busted out, a couple chairs out on the back lawn. The house sagged a bit, wood busted out in places. The nearby trees were busted, half-fallen, with pieces of hay sunk into their bark like throwing knives.

Winry stared, finally letting go of Hayate, who sniffed at the ground. "How is that even possible?"

"That wind was probably moving about a hundred miles an hour, that's how," Ed replied. "Fuck. Well uh, I think we're taking whatever stuff isn't ruined and heading into town to stay for awhile."

Riza sighed. "I think this just made the decision about where to live for us," she said. "The house is a lost cause, we'd have to tear it down and rebuild again." She looked back towards the barn. "And I'm willing to bet Rosie didn't survive it. The cart didn't. I don't know how I'm getting to town. I can't walk that far and you can't carry me, Edward."

Ed shrugged. "I can fix the cart, that's no problem. But I'm not so sure about the house. Al and I can try, but it looks like the tornado took off with some of it."

Al looked at him. "I'm pretty sure we can fix it anyway, Brother," he said. "We have extra wood from the barn."

"Yeah." Ed sighed. "Well, we'd better get to that, if we want to have a place to sleep tonight that's not the cellar."

"I'll go check on the animals," Riza said, sounding tired as she turned and headed for the barn.

Winry looked between her husband and her brother-in-law. "Do you really think you can fix it? That looks pretty bad."

Ed nodded. "Yeah, we've fixed worse before, but it's a big job. And I can't promise the state of things inside. Any busted appliances are up to you, we're not engineers."

She looked back at the house. "I'll do my best. I'm not a master of appliances, but I'm handy enough otherwise, I should be able to do it."

"Damnit." Ed ran a hand down his face. "Well, we may as well see what we can do, Al," he said to his brother, walking towards the house.

Al walked with him, looking over the place as they circled around it, investigating the damage. "It looks like the house itself is intact for the most part," he finally said. "It's just been rotated." He looked at his brother. "I didn't think that was possible."

Ed shrugged. "Like I said, that wind was probably hitting up around a hundred miles an hour, that's a lot of force to hit the house with. We're probably lucky this is all that happened, rather than the whole thing being ripped up and taking off for the sky."

Al made a face, looking at Ed. "I guess. Well, shall we?"

Ed walked over to the side of the house, clapping his hands. Al clapped his hands, and without having to count or give any other sign to each other, they hit the house in tandem. Alchemical energy ripped along the wood, slowly deconstructing and reconstructing it against its new angle until it was situated properly on its foundation.

Al stepped back, looking over their work. "It looks secure enough," he finally said. "Let's test the integrity of the wood before we let the girls in."

Ed walked with him back to the back kitchen door, walking ahead and going in before his brother. He walked slowly, testing his weight on each step. The floor creaked a little more than it used to, but it held. "Looks like it's okay," he said as his brother followed him in. "It'll need torn down and rebuilt later, but it should hold us out until we can figure out what to do with the place."

"Check the upstairs," Al said, slowly heading for the stairs, testing and listening to every step for signs of the wood refusing to hold their weight.

Like the kitchen floor, the stairs creaked more than they had. "I'm not sure the stairs held," Ed said reluctantly. "I wouldn't trust them for more than a few trips. We could probably all camp out in the living room for a few days."

Al nodded. "Yeah."

They explored the upstairs, fixing windows and touching up their job on the wood so nothing would crash down onto the first floor. Finally declaring it as done as it was going to get without more intervention, they headed back downstairs and out back.

"Okay," Al said. "We're going to collect our things from upstairs and take them down to the living room. The upstairs won't collapse on us, but I wouldn't trust it for a lot of activity yet. We can do another transmutation after we've had rest and some food, but for right now, it's as good as it's going to get."

Winry glanced back towards the barn where Riza was coming out, shaking her head. "Can't you two fix it? I've seen you fix some pretty bad places before."

Ed didn't answer at first, looking at his girlfriend. "How're the animals?" he asked.

"Most of the chickens aren't even there anymore," she answered. "And I was right, Rosie didn't make it."

Ed made rude noise. "Well, you're right, we're stuck out here for now. Once we have you two situated, Al and I will walk back to town and either get another damn mule, or a car or something."

Al looked at Winry. "We've fixed places, but this might be beyond us. The integrity of the wood's been compromised, we'd have to bring in some fresh, new wood to fill in the gaps and fix what's breaking. Which we don't have."

Riza looked up at the house, her expression grim. "We'll just have it torn down," she said. "Even with your alchemy, it'll take awhile to fix it, and there's a chance we'll get hit again. I admit, I never took the weather into account when I chose this place. But I should've. If I'm left home alone when the weather gets like this, I won't be able to get to the cellar in time."

Ed looked over at her. "You sure? You were really attached to this place."

"I'm sure, Edward," she said. "You were too, with all the work you've put into it, but like I said, if this weather hits again and I'm alone, I won't make it to safety in time. I have more than just the idea of a job to live for. Now I have you and your family, I can't afford to take those chances anymore." She sighed. "On the other hand, I'm sure this will make the general very happy."

Ed snorted. "He just won by way of a tornado. If I didn't know better, I'd accuse him of sending it."

"Even if he could, I doubt he would, Edward," Riza said. "That'd put me, and the three of you, in danger. He's too overprotective for that."

"Like I said, Riza, if I didn't know better." Ed sighed. "Well, come on, let's get you girls settled, then Al and I will head to town and see what we can do about getting you two out of here."

Once things had been brought down from the bedrooms and the girls settled into the living room with Hayate, Ed and Al headed out on the road for town. It was about a mile, an easy walk for most, but not for Riza, and she was right, Ed couldn't carry her that far. Al would've been able to, back when he was in armor, but he wasn't anymore, so he was in the same boat Ed was in.

The town hadn't been hit, although it'd gotten plenty of hail and wind. There wasn't exactly an auto dealer in town, nor a store that sold large animals, but a call could be put in to the general. Lines to Riza's place were down.

Ed stuck a coin in the pay phone, then waited for the line to be connected to Roy's office.

"General Mustang speaking," Roy's voice finally came on the line after Ed had to go through Havoc.

"Hey, Mustang," Ed said. "We have a problem."

"I never like it when you start conversations like that," Roy said with annoyance. "Are you still repairing Riza's house and taking up my money in the process?" He didn't sound terribly upset about that as much as giving Ed a hard time.

"Yeah, about that," Ed said. "We got all but the painting done, then we got hit by a tornado."

The line went silent for a second. "Is everyone all right?"

"Yeah, we're all fine," Ed said. "We got to the cellar in time. But the house got rotated on the foundation about fifteen degrees. Al and I managed to mostly fix it, but it's going to take a lot of work even with alchemy to fix it. And Riza's saying she'd rather scrap the place and move somewhere else."

The earpiece crackled slightly in Ed's ear as Roy sighed deeply. "Well, at least everyone's all right and thank god she's getting out of that place. Does she know where she'll be going?"

"Probably back East with me."

There was another pause. "Why with you?"

Ed grinned. "Oh, we didn't tell you? She's my girlfriend. I'm surprised she hasn't told you yet."

"What?"

"You heard me." Next to him, his brother smothered a laugh.

"I heard you, but I don't want to believe that. How the- Edward, I told you to fix her well, not seduce her, for god's sake."

"I did not either," Ed snapped. "It was entirely mutual." Al smothered another laugh.

"I'm finding this hard to believe," Roy said. "From either end. But as long as she won't be living alone anymore, I suppose I can't gripe too much. What do you need?"

"We need some way of getting her from her house to town so we can catch the train back East, mostly," Ed said. "Her mule didn't survive the tornado hit."

"And I suppose there's nothing in town?"

"This isn't exactly a thriving city," Ed said. "I could probably find someone selling a horse or mule or something if I asked around, but no, not really."

"I'll authorize a vehicle from the nearest military base," Roy said. "Stay put at her house, someone will be along to pick you all up and anything she wants to take with her from the house. Start helping her pack."

"Yes, sir," Ed said. "About how long can we expect this to take?"

"You can expect someone in about two days," Roy said. "Are you at the house now?"

"No, the lines went down with the tornado," Ed said. "Al and I walked back to town."

"All right, just be watching then," Roy said. "Someone will be along in the next couple days."

"Thanks, Mustang," Ed said.

"Thank you for watching out for her, Edward," Roy said. "Although it wasn't _quite_ what I'd meant when I sent you out there."

"You asshole, you didn't even tell me who it was when you sent me!"

"I was afraid you'd treat it as a personal favor and try to get out of it if I did," Roy said. "It worked out in your favor, why are you complaining?"

"I hate you so much sometimes, Mustang."

"Someone will be there in a couple days, Edward. Keep everyone safe until then." With that, Roy hung up.

Ed scowled at the phone before hanging it up. Al finally let out that laugh he'd been holding back. "Well," Al said once he'd stopped laughing. "Why don't we get back to the girls?"

"Yeah," Ed said grumpily, giving his brother a dirty look for the laughter.

They left the general store, heading back towards the house. Al looked around at the destruction the storm had left behind. "So Riza's moving in with us back home?"

Ed shrugged. "I guess. She said she was coming back East with us, and it's not like we don't have room for her and Hayate. He's a good dog, he'll get along with your cat."

Al smiled. "Good. I wanted to stay living with you, but I wasn't really wanting to move out here. I would've, but I like it out East better."

"Yeah, I'm with you on that one," Ed said. "Riza said it gets muggy in summer. Fuck that shit."

Al made a face. "Dry heat makes you sweat enough, I can't imagine having to swim through the air just to get to the bathroom. Besides, we live in the city, we get more modern conveniences. I liked living in the country with Mom when we were kids, but I've gotten spoiled."

Ed laughed. "Yeah, me too," he said. "And Riza will do better in that environment anyway."

Riza greeted them when they returned, standing out on the patio. "I see you couldn't find anything," she said.

"I called Mustang," Ed said. "The town was too busy picking up the pieces from the storm to be of much use. He's sending a vehicle from the nearest military base to pick us and your stuff up to take us to the train station. So we'll start packing your books and whatever else you wanna keep."

"Just a couple books and Hayate's toys," she said, walking back in with them. "So we have a couple days, then?"

"Yeah, he said about two."

"All right. It looks like the food managed to survive, so we'll be okay for the time being," Riza said. "We'll be sleeping in the living room, but it won't be too bad for the short time we have to wait."

"You get the couch," Ed said. "And no arguing. We'll sleep on the floor, you get the couch with that hip of yours."

She sighed deeply. "All right, Edward. I wasn't really looking forward to the floor anyway."

Riza didn't have much she wanted to pack; she didn't have much to start with. Clothes, a few books, Hayate's toys and a couple pictures. Ed and the other Elrics packed up their clothes, living out of suitcases for the two day wait, grateful when the truck finally showed up late the second day.

It was a standard personnel truck, open in the back with bench seats inside for passengers. Ed argued Riza into taking the front passenger seat next to the driver while he and the others took the back with the two trunks, their bags, and Hayate.

The trip to the station was a short one, just a mile into town. Al and Winry took care of Hayate and the luggage while Ed bought the tickets and Riza contacted both Roy and her grandfather to let them know she was on her way East.

"My grandfather is taking care of selling the property," she said as she rejoined the others.

Ed nodded. "All right, good. We won't have to worry about anything then other than moving you in."

"Will there be enough room at the house for me and my stuff?" she asked, eyeing her two trunks.

"There will be," Winry assured her. "We have plenty of bookshelf space all over the place, the boys won't mind sharing some with you, and Ed's got the master bedroom for some reason, so you'll have your own private bathroom attached. Good luck having Ed keep it clean, but I'm sure you can bully him into it."

Ed scowled. "I keep my bathroom clean, Winry. You've never been in there, how would you know what it looks like anyway?"

"Oh, you mean you actually do chores now?" she asked. "That's a first."

"That's what I said," Al said. "But he even cleans up after himself in the kitchen. It's kinda weird."

"Be quiet, both of you," Ed said with a sulk. "Anyway, the train should be here in about a half an hour. I got us a private car, you may thank me later."

"Why later?" Riza said. "I'd like to thank you now. I'm not up for dealing with a car full of people."

Ed kissed her forehead. "Bless you, woman. These two would wait until they saw for themselves that I did something good before saying anything."

Al gave him the cow eyes look that usually twisted Ed around Al's little finger. "I would not," he protested.

Ed made a face at that expression. "Stop that, you're too old for that look. And you would too. You and Winry both."

That got Winry laughing. "I won't deny it."

"See?"

The train actually arrived fifteen minutes early, much to their relief. The luggage was stowed and they took their seats in their private car, Ed taking a window seat across from Al while Riza sat down next to him.

It wasn't long before the others had all fallen asleep to the lull of the train, Winry laying down with Al's lap as her pillow, Al leaning against the window. Riza had fallen asleep on Ed's shoulder, exhausted from poor sleep the last couple days. The couch wasn't terrible comfortable, and neither had the floor been, for any of them. Ed felt a bit sleepy himself.

He looked out the window at the passing empty fields, freshly plowed and waiting for seed. The trip West had changed things for him. He looked back at his sleeping girlfriend and smiled.

That broken well was the best thing that had ever happened to him.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, Goehner is a real place. It's a tiny village in Nebraska where I lived during high school. The real thing is even smaller than what's in the story. However, Chez Bubba is a real restaurant there, and yes, they have good BBQ and sweet potato fries. A little classy, all Bubba.
> 
> And yes, the Ogallala is a real aquifer, too. The majority of it is in western Nebraska.


End file.
